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in 2014 



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RECENTLY PUBLISHED, 

and for sale by the booksellers generally, 

THE RAMBLER IN NORTH AMERICA. 

By CHARLES JOSEPH LATROBK 
In 2 vols. 12mo. 




THE RAMBLER 



IN MEXICO 



MDCCCXXXIV. 



BY CHARLES JOSEPH LATROBE, 

AUTHOR OP THE " ALPENSTOCK," ETC. 



" Coelum, non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt." 

Hor. Epist. 



NEW- YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET. 

1 83 6. 



CONTENTS. 



Letter I. — The Gulf of Mexico — The Goelette Halcyon — Her Pas- 
sengers and Crew — The Bravo — Sunday on board — A Calm — The 
Roadstead of Tampico — Prognostics of coming Evil — Morning before a 
Storm — The Custom House Boat — The Norte — The Goelette is driven 
out to Sea — The Halcyon returns to her anchoring Ground — The Bar 
— The River Panuco — Arrival at Tampico^- A second Norte . page 7 

Letter II. — First Hours in New Spain — Description of Tampico — 
Inhabitants — Character of the Mexican — The European — The Indian 
— Military — The Fonda de la Bolza — Pastimes of the Inhabitants — 
Scenery of the Environs — The Bluff and the Rivers — Juliano — Insect 
hunting — A Cure of Enthusiasm — The Garapatos — A third Norte — 
Return of the Halcyon — Vexatious Detention — Pueblo Viejo — La Mira 
— La Fuente — The arriero Ant — We quit the Coast — Tampico Alta 22 

Letter III. — Halt at Tampico Alta — Physical Geography of New- 
Spain — The Tierras calientes, Tierras templadas, and Tierras frias — 
Description of the Party — The Masters and Servants, Juliano, Miguel, 
Don*Juan Espindola, Don Gaetano — Scenery — La Messa — " Aimable 
et execrable Tampico" — Osuhuama, an Indian Village — The Rancho 
— The Indian Cabin — The Inmates — Curious Scene — Indian Guile 
— Santa Catherina — The Hacienda — Chicontepec — A storm — Miguel, 
a borracho — Vale of the Sierra Madre — The Cura's Seat — The River 
Canada — Great Defile of the Canada ; Features of — Splendid Scenery 
— Tlacolula — The Cura — The Mules — Miguel and Juliano — The 
Monte Penulco — The Tierras templadas 38 

Letter IV. — Scenery of the Monte Penulco — The Tierras templa- 
das — Juliano's Sickness and Defection — Zacualtipan ; Description of — - 
The Arriero's Home — A Day's Rest — Ruins — An awkward Adventure 
— San Bernardo — The Agave Americana — The Cactus — Singular 
Scenery — Rio Oquilcalco — Rio Grande — The Mountain of San Am- 
monica — Hacienda Zoquital — Circuit to visit Regla — Puebla Grande de 
Mittan — Hacienda and Barranca of Regla — The Amalgamation Works 
— Real del Monte Company — The basaltic Rocks — The Cascade — ■ 
Dangerous nocturnal Ascent to Real del Monte — The Town ; Scenery 
in the Vicinity of — A Visit to the Mines — The various Shafts — Mode 
of working — An Indian Tale — Route from the Mines to the Capital— 
San Mateo Grande — The City of Mexico— Features of the neighbour- 
ing Plains 59 



CONTENTS* 



Letter V. — The City of Mexico — Dispersion of our Train, ancl 
Subsequent Arrangements — Pursuits of the Trio — Description of the 
Valley and City — The Environs of the City — The Calzadas — The 
Aqueducts — The Route of San Augustin — Optical Deception — Haci- 
enda San Antonio ; Description of — The Pedigral — Culture of the Ma- 
guey — Buildings of the Hacienda — San Augustin ; View from its Envi- 
rons — The Scenery of the Valley — Volcanoes and volcanic Phenomena, 
present and past — Routes from the Valley of Mexico — Tacuba — San 
Cosmo — Apopotla — The Cupressus disticha — Chapultepec — Guada- 
loupe — The Patron Saint of Mexico — Nuestra Senora de los Remideos 
— The Climate of Mexico — Earthquakes 8ft 

Letter VI. — Civilities to Foreigners in the City of Mexico — The 
Opinions of Foreigners — The French Barber — The Belgian Hosfe^The 
German Saddler — The Corps d'Opera — The Palaces — The Canals — 
The Market — The Alguazil — Shops— The upper Classes, male and fe- 
male — The Alameda — The Paseo de las Vigas — Military — Mexican 
Habits — State of the Country and of Parties — The Holy Week — Influx 
of Strangers of all Classes to Mexico — The Plaza Mayor — The Booths 
— Holy Thursday — Church visiting — Popular Amusements — The Rat- 
tles — Judas Iscariot — Processions on Good Friday — Saturday before 
Easter — The Termination of the Holy Week — Christianity in Mexico 
— Public Institutions — The Museum — Antiquities — The ancient Mex- 
ican Calendar — Antiquities 106 

Letter VII. — Excursion in the Environs — The Calzada — Penon 
Viejo — Lake Tezcuco — Hacienda, Chapingo, Huejutla — The Bano di 
Montezuma— Tezcosingo — Tezcuco — The Contador — Remains of the 
Mastodon — Singular Fact — San Juan Teotihuacan — The Houses of 
the Sun and Moon ; Description of — History of Anahuac — Peopling of 
the Continent of America — Origin of these pyramidal Monuments — 
Time and Manner in which Men and Animals reached the American 
Continent — Entry into the House of the Moon — Terra cotta Heads 
and obsidian Knives — The Fainting Stone — Tecama — Zumpango — 
Huehuetoca — The Desague Real — Guautitlan — Tanepantla — Return 



Letter VIII.— The Opera at Mexico — Bullfights — The Desierto — 
Scenery of the Valley of Mexico — Departure for the Coast — Tlalpam — 
Route of the Cruz del Marques — Cuernavaca — Visit to the Teocalli of 
Xochicalco — The House of Flowers — Yantipec— Cuautla Amilpas — 
Disagreeable Adventure — Zacualpam Amilpas— Base of Popocatepetl 
— San Mateo — Atlisco — Cholula 167 

Letter IX. — Cholula— The Great Pyramid— Quetzalcoatl— La Pu- 
e bl a — The English dray Horses — Route to Vera Cruz — The Pinal — ■ 
Ojo de Agua — Orizava — Perote — Las Vigas — The CofTre de Perote 
and its Lavas — The Alps and the Cordillera — Jalapa — The Litter — 
Puente del Rey — Vera Cruz — The Roadstead — Sail from New Spain 



to the Capital 



133 



— The Vomito Prieto — Conclusion 



203 



THE 



RAMBLER IN MEXICO. 



LETTER I. 

I resume my correspondence with you, and herewith 
send you a few sheets containing a chronicle of my 
vernal rambles in New Spain. 

The present recital introduces you to the same prin- 
cipal dramatis personae, and opens, where my last closed 
— on board the goelette Halcyon, in the gulf of Mexico ; 
somewhere about latitude 28° north, longitude 92° west, 
or within a hundred miles, more or less, of the tropic of 
Cancer. It was- the fifteenth of January, 1834 ; wind 
from the eastward, light but steady ; sky serene, and 
every prospect of a fair and fortunate voyage. The 
distance from the Balize lighthouse at the entrance of 
the Mississippi, to the bar of Tampico, towards which 
the head of our little vessel was directed, is about six 
hundred miles. 

From this date, up to the fourth day at noon — so fa- 
vourable were the auspices under which our voyage was 
continued, always excepting the confined position, sea- 
sickness, and the bad company on board — we never shifted 
a sail. They may really be said to have been halcyon 
days. We were then, by computation, a little more than 
forty miles from our port. Towards evening it fell 
calm ; and during the succeeding night, the stars, and the 
moon in her second quarter, glistened upon the deck, as 
it swam with the heavy dews of the tropics. 

But that you may better enter into the state of our 



8 



THE GULF. 



feelings, and of our anticipations at this juncture, I offer 
you the following description of our position. 

The Halcyon was a small, two-masted vessel, of but 
trifling burden, though, in fact, of far too great a draught 
for the trade in which it was engaged, as will be seen 
hereafter. The peculiar details of the rig I spare you ; 
first, because you would hardly be the wiser for them, 
and secondly, because I have forgotten them. Our 
freight below deck consisted of notions, or a mixed cargo 
of European and American manufacture, suited to the 
Mexican market. The hold was gorged to the hatches ; 
the forward deck encumbered with two lage piles of 
merchandise and lumber, and the cabins, fore and aft, 
were all filled to a certain extent, much to the discomfort 
of the live stock on board, under which head our trio, 
and about forty passengers — inclusive of a woman and 
child, and exclusive of half a dozen hands attached to the 
vessel — must be comprised. 

The low after-cabin measured about twelve feet 
by eight. It was furnished with four confined double 
berths, each containing a dirty mattress, a blanket, and, 
on an average, five hundred cockroaches and other 
creepers. Haifa dozen passengers might have been ac- 
commodated with some decency in this den ; neverthe- 
less, as it was, it was devoted to the free use of five and- 
twenty. In brief, the manner in which the vessel was 
crammed to repletion with live and dead stock, to the 
exclusion of any chance of ease, was discreditable to the 
owners and officers of the ship. , But what could w T e ex- 
pect from beings such as we now had to deal with ! 

The day spent at anchor, within the bar of the Mis- 
sissippi, had given us some foretaste of our position, and 
of the character of those among whom we were thrown ; 
and during the succeeding days, we had ample time for 
closer observation. 

As to nations and pursuits, there was distinction 
enough among the forty souls on board : as to character, 
one term would suffice ; they were rogues all — ourselves 
excluded. De Vignes, the captain, was a Provencal, 



THE GULF. 



9 



the same who, if report said true, commanded the Ca- 
lypso slave ship, with three hundred slaves on board, 
which was captured by an English cruiser off Mantanzas. 
Within sight of his port, his evil star prevailed ; he was 
observed and chased — was obliged to run his ship 
aground, and only escaped certain hanging by leaping 
overboard, and swimming for his life to the shore. 
Though a slave dealer and excessively choleric, he was 
not without his good points. When not irritated, he 
might be termed good natured, and evinced generous and 
charitable feelings. He was doubtless an excellent sea- 
man. His general manner, however, gave you the im- 
pression of his being soured by adversity, and by a con- 
stant struggle with misfortune. Among the crew under 
his command, you might enumerate probably as many 
nations as individuals; and nothing could be more 
amusing than to hear the orders, whenever he was in a 
bustle, given and responded to in English, Spanish, and 
French. 

Among those who were entitled, by right of payment, 
to the same accommodation as ourselves — with excep- 
tion of the special enjoyment of the berths and cock- 
roaches, which we had timely secured — there were 
characters such as would make the fortune of any of the 
present herd of tale-weavers for the annuals and maga- 
zines. I cannot linger, however, with either Don Pablo, 
a fat old Spaniard, full of conceits and odd scraps of 
songs, going to Mexico to seek his fortune, with a good 
chance of being hung as a Guachupin ; or Don Garcia, 
an exiled Mexican officer, of Iturbide's party, repairing 
secretly thither with reasonable expectation of being dis- 
covered and shot ; or Cortina, the captain who had 
lost his ship ; or Celestina, the farceur of the company. 
Neither can I give you the history of the conjuror on 
board ; nor describe the boisterous singing and gaming, 
the impure orgies and impious airs of the mauvais sujets, 
French, Spanish, German, nor give the history of the fair 
Creole emigrating from New Orleans, with her squalling 
child, under the protection of a fat and portly school- 



10 



THE GULF. 



master of Tamaulipas, jealous and suspicious of every 
man on board. One personage, however, was too striking 
not to be singled out. 

A tall athletic figure, with strongly marked features ; a 
countenance roughened with the signs of long addiction 
to a life of passion and adventure ; shabby travel-worn 
habiliments, and a slouched hat. under which he could, 
when occasion suited, throw his changeful features into 
shadows, indicated the bravo, soi disant Monsieur le 
Marquis de Maison Rouge, of the ancient and noble 
house of Maison Rouge de Perpignan. According to 
his own account, he had been born and bred in Louisiana, 
and had been cheated of some hundred thousand million 
acres of fat and fertile land in that state, his lawful patri- 
mony. He had been compelled by a stern and uncivil 
guardian to study civil engineering, and, according to 
his own testimony, with considerable success. Subse- 
quently he had been taken prisoner by the English, when 
acting as sentinel in the marshes, at the time of the attack 
upon New Orleans. Whether his brain or his morals 
had become unsettled by a knock on the head from the 
butt end of a musket, which he had received on this oc- 
casion, and had not yet digested, I cannot say ; but it 
was evident that he had never acted like a man of edu- 
cation, breeding, or noble birth since. He had adopted 
the creed of Sardanapalus ; and at New Orleans, in the 
Attakapas, at the Havanna, in the islands, and on the 
main, had led, for years, a shameless life of sin and crime. 
As he acquired gold, he spent it in brawls and violence. 
His person bore the marks of the cutting and stabbing 
frays in which he had often been an actor, and not un- 
frequently a victim. Now, penniless, he was going to 
Mexico, to make his fortune in some w r ild speculation, in 
reference to which he could point out neither the means 
by which it was to be set on foot, nor the ultimate ends 
which were to be gained. When not excited, he was 
good tempered, and his voice was one of the most musical 
I ever heard. When conversing, which he did at times 
most agreeably and well, you could hardly believe that 
those bland tones were the production of such a stormy 



THE GULF. 



11 



machine ; or that the same lips could pour forth that un- 
controlled torrent of impure language, in hot vehemence 
of rage, when the possessor was under the influence of 
passion. Never did I see before me an example like 
that here afforded, of the wakefulness of conscience, while 
the body slept. He never gave himself up to rest like 
other men. It seemed that his nerves were never un- 
braced, and his muscles never in complete repose — that 
the bow was never unstrung. The first impulse of his 
muscular arm on being disturbed, was to place itself in 
a position to guard the body ; the first expression of his 
lineaments was that of suspicion. He never seemed to 
dream of his innocent childhood, but always of the scenes 
of his misspent and stormy manhood, and they truly were 
not calculated to lull his slumbers. 

Thus crowded together and surrounded, it was a bless- 
ing to be favoured by wind and weather, and to have a 
reasonable hope of a speedy termination to our voyage. 
The meals, which occurred twice a day, were hasty and 
rude repasts, of which, hunger compelling, we all par- 
took, standing round the raised roof of the after cabin ; 
below decks, it would have been impossible to assist at 
them. 

Sunday was, of course, in nowise distinguished from 
ordinary days, by greater propriety of demeanour or 
calmer temper of mind. We were quite beyond the 
Sabbath: and the only thing which marked that such a 
day was entered on the log, was a quarrel, knife in hand, 
between the supervisor of provisions and the cook, ari- 
sing from a claim to the honour of mixing the Sunday 
pudding, upon which each insisted. I forget who gained 
the victory ultimately, but I remember that the pudding 
was very badly mixed, and as tough as parchment. 

The morning of the fifth day after quitting the Balize, 
as I have related, it fell calm. A golden mist hovered 
over the surface of the sea, and the green colour of its 
waters betokened our having come upon soundings. 
The weather, as the day advanced, maintained the same 
character. Portuguese men-of-war floated by hundreds 



12 



THE GULF. 



about the goelette ; and whenever the white vapours, in 
which the horizon was swathed, broke in our vicinity, 
and the sunlight burst upon us, the air was delicious. 
The state of inaction, however, was disagreeable, and 
the constant jar of what our captain, in his piebald lan- 
guage, called ihepumtackle, as the bark rolled on the swell, 
not the less so. We were drifting slowly on the current 
to the northward. As the sun sank, however, the sea 
breeze filled our sails ; and the mist dispersing, we pro- 
ceeded to the westward ; and, coming in full view of the 
low, sandy hills on the beach, anchored after sunset in 
about nine fathoms, in the roads of Tampico, directly 
opposite the bar at the entrance of the river Panuco, 
distant about three miles. 

This was not so much amiss. But our pleasant dreams 
of a speedy termination to the present state of durance 
vile were, as yet, far from being realized. 

The night was clear and starlight — how bright and 
brilliant the constellations stood in the heavens, I cannot 
describe to you. Even after our short voyage, t he breath 
of the land was delicious, and the heavy dull sound of 
the breakers on the bar that engirdled the land of won- 
ders before us, was music to our ears, as we lay under 
our blankets stretched upon the roof of the cabin. We 
hailed our escape from the arms of winter; from the 
marshes, quags, mud, and snow of New Orleans, its 
thick and polluted air, where the worshippers of Mam- 
mon can alone find delight, to the mountains, the vegeta- 
tion, the eternal summer of New Spain. 

Still, if I may depict my own feelings, I may confess 
that there was a weight on my spirits, which, though it 
could not entirely crush these pleasant hopes and reflec- 
tions, seemed to prevent their soaring and running riot. 
1 would not shut my eyes to some signs of probable dif- 
ficulty which all might have noticed ; and I could not 
prevent certain portents of coming troubles from depres- 
sing my mind. 

Among the former I may mention the knowledge, that 
as there was only six or seven feet water on the bar, 



THE GULF. 



13 



while our vessel had full ten feet draught, she must con- 
sequently be unloaded before she could enter the river. 
Further, that where we lay, as well as on the whole 
shelterless and iron-bound coast to the north and -outh, 
no vessel could maintain its ground, should any of the 
prevailing winds arise. In addition, it was whispered 
about the vessel, that no inconsiderable quantity of con- 
traband goods were concealed on board, and that a 
recent change in the custom house of Tampico, com- 
bined with the bad name which the Halcyon had already 
acquired, would probably bring the vessel and all on board 
into difficulty, in this semi-barbarous country, where law 
was but imperfectly understood, and still more imper- 
fectly administered. 

Moreover, the eyes and ears of some of us on board 
were witnesses of much calculated to throw a yet darker 
veil over the future. 

Lovely as the weather had been for some time, the 
signs of a coming change had gradually thickened upon 
us. The deep blue of the southern sky had of late, oc- 
casionally, towards evening, been flickered with one or 
two light vapoury and feathery clouds, like the tail of a 
wild horse, or of a comet, seemingly balanced over our 
heads in the upper regions of the atmosphere. The ces- 
sation of the steady breeze, the fluctuating calm of the 
preceding day, the superabundant dews, and more than 
all, the restless swell now heaving upon the shore from 
the depths of the gulf, had all betokened to the practised 
eye and long experience of De Vignes, the near approach 
of a norte, one of the most dreaded of those violent 
winds which agitate this land-locked and deceitful sea ; 
and while others were dreaming of land, he was evi- 
dently thinking of storm and tempest, and was preparing 
for it accordingly. Our chain cable was fitted with a buoy, 
and arrangements made to slip it at a moment's warning. 
Before he went to his repose, the topmasts and yards 
were lowered, every sail on board double reefed, and the 
decks cleared as far as it was possible to clear them. 

With the approach of morning, driving bodies of cold 

B 



14 



THE GULF. 



mist covered us once more, and veiled the land from our 
view. Hour went after hour, and the evil omens thick- 
ened around us ; the sky became blurred with shapeless 
masses of reddish clouds, and as the sun rose, a broken 
and discoloured rainbow w T as seen in the west. Ill- 
omened arch ! how different from the bow after summer 
rain, spanning the eastern sky at eventide, which we have 
learned to hail as full of promise ! 

About ten o'clock a.m. the sea breeze dispersed the 
mists on the smooth but heaving surface of the water, but 
had no power on the sky, which imperceptibly grew of a 
deeper dun, especially from the zenith to the southeast. 

Our eyes were anxiously turned to the west, where we 
could again descry the range of coast, the foam-covered 
line of breakers on the bar, and the tall masts of a num- 
ber of vessels within it. Six or eight of various burden 
were seen riding at anchor in the open roadstead ; either 
watching, like ourselves, for communication with the 
shore, or outward bound, for the reception of their cargo. 
Our glasses were constantly directed to the bar for some 
indication that the signals for a pilot were observed ; but 
hours came and went, without the slightest sign of recog- 
nition. As the day passed the meridian, however, a 
black spot was seen among the breakers, and then an- 
other, and we soon distinguished two custom-house boats 
pulling north and south, to communicate with other ships. 
When it became evident that neither seemed to consider 
us as within their beat, the captain resolved to send the 
shallop with two men to communicate w r ith them. Two 
more hours of uncertainty followed, when the boatmen 
came backdating that the answerreturned by the officers 
was, that we must come and anchor nearer the shore, be- 
fore they would board us. Old De Vignes gave a terrific 
growl on hearing this ; glanced at the thickening sky, 
and at the eastern horizon ; and, after a moment's hesi- 
tation, gave the necessary orders to obey, and to run the 
goelette in. The anchor was weighed ; and a momen- 
tary exultation was felt by all, as we found ourselves at 
length riding at anchor again within hail. 

What then occurred is now like a dream to me ; that 



THE GULF. 



15 



a boat should come aboard of us, and that hardly an in- 
dividual should leave the goelette, when at this time our 
fate might have been foreseen by the most heedless on 
board, seems to me to be perfectly incomprehensible. The 
crowded state of the vessel was a source of discomfort 
to all ; our water and our biscuit were both known to be 
running short, and the signs of the impending tempest 
could no longer be misunderstood. Yet no one stirred 
— for why, no one could give a reason but the poor one, 
that the few who went, must go without baggage ashore, 
and the impulse seemed to be " to stick by the stuff." 
The boat was after an instant's parley pushed off again 
with its wild, half-savage, pirate-looking crew, who were 
accompanied by the supercargo of the goelette, after 
giving the promise, that early next morning all the pas- 
sengers should be landed, and the discharge of the cargo 
forthwith commenced. They hoisted the sail — were 
soon carried to the bar, and disappeared among the huge 
waves which broke upon it. 

The momentary bustle over, we had time to compre- 
hend our position, and it grew more dreary every instant. 
The wind now blew steadily from the southeast, and the 
swell rose with it. The sky began to lose its uniform 
shade, and to jag and rend into shapeless masses of heavy 
clouds. The man-of-war bird was seen high up in the 
atmosphere, breasting the breeze, and scudding out to 
sea ; while the bands of white pelicans, which we had 
watched soaring and diving in the roadstead during the 
morning, quitted their toils and wheeled their heavy flight 
over the breakers to the sheltered sands and lagoons of 
the land. It seemed as if all were leaving us and our ill- 
starred neighbours to their fate. It was evident that the 
latter had taken the alarm, and were hastily preparing for 
the coming struggle with the powers of the air and ocean. 
One brig partly discharged, which lay about a mile nearer 
the bar, trusting probably to the weight of water which 
was now rolling in upon the land, resolved to attempt 
the passage, and setting her sails, stood in boldly for the 
shore. The day must have been near its close, for we had 



16 



THE GULF, 



difficulty to descry her motions distinctly in the thicken- 
ing haze* She was seen to career midway among the 
breakers, when suddenly her change of position and in- 
clination told us that she had struck. A few minutes of 
intense anxiety followed. To return was impossible, 
and if she did not advance, her total loss was unavoidable. 
We saw her heave and strike heavily three or four times, 
as the sea rolled in upon her, and had given her up for 
lost, when providentially a heavier billow than ordinary 
carried her over the last ridge, and righting, she was in 
safety. How we envied her ! * 

As evening darkened the deck, the wind increased , 
and the captain no longer made a secret of his convic- 
tion that we should be driven out to sea before morn- 
ing. There was something like despair painted on the 
visages of some, when this became known ; and a vol- 
ley of curses, deep, not loud, answered the announce- 
ment. 

We were not long left in uncertainty. " The ship to 
the southward is scudding !" said one. u There goes the 
brig P exclaimed another. I remember I was in my 
usual position on deck, near the little tiller ; now and 
then glancing at the dim form of our nearest neigh- 
bour ; or searching into the gloom to windward, striving 
to penetrate the dusk out of which one spectral foam- 
tipped billow was heaving and passing under us after 
another, urged by the impulse of a strong but steady 
wind, when all of a sudden the goelette received a 
shock from the opposite quarter which staggered all up- 
on deck, and steadied her completely for the moment. 

" El norte /" yelled the mate at my elbow, as a tor- 
rent of wind and spray swept over the deck. " El 
norte r echoed Cortina, the shipless captain, "1 lost 
my ship in the last !" " El norte /" shouted the bravo, 
excited by the coming struggle with the elements, for 
which he had been preparing himself by stripping al- 
most naked, and tying a ragged handkerchief about his 
head. "Helm hard down — slip the chain cable!" re- 
sponded the captain, as he hoisted the jib with his own 
hands ; and instantly the harsh sound of the iron was 



THE GULF. 



17 



heard passing out at the bow. The vessel began to 
change her direction, when suddenly she was brought 
to again with a jerk, and a cry forward announced that 
the last bolt of the chain refused to pass through the 
hawse hole. 

A cold chisel was procured, and while it was em- 
ployed to cut the iron bolt, all who were aware of the 
circumstance were inclined to check their breath. Our 
position was truly one of no ordinary peril, as the strain 
upon the forward timber threatened to tear it out of the 
ship, in which case we must instantly have gone down. 

At length the bolt was severed, and the vessel, free 
from all obstacles, whirled round, and began to fly be- 
fore the wind. 

Such a wind I had till then never even imagined. 
The sea was apparently levelled under its pressure ; and 
far and near seemed like a carpet of driving snow, from 
the sleet and foam which were raised and hurried along 
its surface. 

Thus we turned our backs on the shore, and drove 
hour after hour in storm and darkness into the unknown 
void before us. 

What appearances there were in the sky I do not 
know, as our vision was limited to a narrow circle of 
half a furlong around us ; but if the disorder of the clouds 
answered that of the waves, there must have been awful 
doings over our heads. 

The sea, in spite of the tremendous force of the wind 
which I have alluded to, was not long to be lulled in 
this unnatural slumber, but began to rise and toss us 
about in fearful wise ; and yet it was not till we had run 
under shortened sail for many hours, in a direction which 
carried us out of all danger of the coast, and we lay to 
under three-reefed mainsail and trysail, that we felt all 
the discomfort of our situation. 

By this time the decks, washed by the sea, had been 
cleared of all lumber. The cocks and hens had been 
drowned in the coops, the boat had been half staved, the 
binnacle and compass broken, and all the inhabitants 

b2 



18 



THE GULF. 



forced by the wet and the chillness of the atmosphere 
to herd together below deck. 

Meantime, what between the crowded state of the 
cabins, the violence of the storm, the shocks received 
from the strife of waters in which we were involved, the 
fears and terrors of some, the horrid and blasphemous 
language uttered by others of the desperadoes about us, 
the dirt and impurity surrounding us, and the quarrel- 
ling and caballing of the crew, our position was truly un- 
enviable. 

Morning brought no cessation of the tempest. The 
wind continued to blow with terrific violence, and day- 
light found us riding and rocking among a tumult of bil- 
lows, whitened by the driving surf, and enveloped by a 
gray misty cloud of agitated vapour. The pumps were 
sounded every half hour. The Halcyon was, however^ 
sound, and the captain's arrangements well and know- 
ingly made ; and there we rode, while one immense bil- 
low after another swelled up like a huge monster out of 
the mist to windward, advanced topling towards us, with 
its broad-spread moving slopes marbled by the bands of 
creamy foam, and after a moment of seeming hesitation 
whether it should go over or under us, was seen vanish- 
ing to leeward. 

The history of hours thus spent must be passed over. 
This first day the Halcyon's stomach seemed to be anni- 
hilated. Nobody cared for sustenance, and cooking was 
out of the question. Some hope had been entertained 
that the storm might lull at sunset, the same hour at 
which it had arisen ; but the evening apparently darkened 
over us more gloomily than before, and all the livelong 
night the wild wind and wild waves continued to struggle 
on the agitated bosom of the gulf. Our cabin was a 
Pandemonium. 

Towards noon the second day the wind began to 
abate, the vapour to disperse, and the clouds to grow 
more transparent. An imperfect observation taken at 
twelve o'clock showed us that we had been driven about 
one hundred and fifty miles to the southeast of Tampico. 



THE GULF. 



19 



With evening it fell dead calm, while the sea continued 
to roll mountain high, and the goelette for the following 
twenty-four hours was tossed about like a cork in a boil- 
ing pot. 

Both bread and water were becoming scarce, and we 
were put upon an allowance of the latter. After the ces- 
sation of the norte the sky became perfectly clear, and 
the weather warm, with glorious moonlight nights. The 
lightness and variableness of the wind, however, had al- 
lowed us to make but little way; the more so, as we 
were, during the calms, at the mercy of the powerful cur- 
rents in these seas. 

To cut a long story short, you may imagine us on the 
afternoon of the fifth day from the date of our mishap, 
once more within sight of land ; and approaching our 
anchorage with feelings which you can well conceive^ 
when you recollect the heartburning we had before ex- 
perienced, and the hopelessness of a speedy communica- 
tion with the shore, combined with the present state of 
the vessel, the nausea which we could not but feel at our 
prolonged forced contact with the most godless and aban- 
doned set of human beings I ever was in company with ; 
and more than all, the fact that the signs of another norte 
had been thickening around during the day, and now at 
the approach of night were becoming too evident to 
admit of misinterpretation. Upon one subject we were 
all agreed this time, that if we left the Halcyon without a 
rag, we would not let another opportunity slip through 
our fingers. Well, our signal was once more fluttering 
in the wind, and we came to our old anchoring ground. 
One or two of our former neighbours were also seen re- 
gaining their port — the greater part were yet missing. 
With what anxiety we directed our eyes to the bar ! An 
hour went by, evening with its menace narrowed the 
horizon ; the wind which had brought us in blew stifFer 
and stifFer. I had begun to give up my hope, for, without 
being able to account for it, I had indulged a little — and 
had as a duty begun to school myself into resignation to 
the will of God, whatever that might be — when two 
specks were seen in the breakers, and shortly we saw 



20 



THE GULF. 



two boats pulling for us with might and main. The one 
was a revenue barge, and the other a cockle shell of a 
boat belonging to an American brigantine within the bar, 
whose captain, out of friendship for De Vignes, risked 
the passage with two sailors, and came to warn him of 
the bad odour in which the Halcyon stood at Tampico, 
and the difficulties which would attend his proceedings. 

I saw at once that as far as our captain was concerned 
he was contented to remain out at sea, till time should 
permit his agents to make the necessary arrangements 
with the custom-house officers, which was not as yet ter- 
minated ; and that the fate of his passengers was nothing 
in his eyes. He, however, clamoured for water, and 
that earnestly, and made no secret of his belief that he 
must again go out to sea. But we needed no spur to 
make us wish to escape from the Halcyon. There was 
no bond between us and our companions but that of dire 
necessity, and chivalrous deference or devotion was here 
quite out of place. It was evident that each must shift 
for himself. Besides, among the many kinds of justice to 
be done, that kind usually termed " justice to one's self," is 
not always to be disregarded. A timely application to 
the captain of the brigantine secured us the use of his 
skiff, which was in truth a mere toy, so fragile that the 
weight of my two companions and myself was almost too 
much for it, and sank it to the water's edge. To this we 
speedily consigned our persons, leaving our goods and 
chattels to their fate. De Vignes had quarrelled with 
his acquaintance the instant he set his foot on deck, so 
that he had nothing to detain him ; and after three min- 
utes' stay, the little boat was scudding under a thin linen 
lugsail, over the broad swell, which was now rolling, in 
increasing volumes at the lapse of every ten seconds, in 
towards the land. 

The feeling of exultation was warm in our bosoms as 
the distance between us and our late prison momentarily 
increased. There was, however, a peril in advance, 
which soon claimed our attention, and that was the pas- 
sage of the bar, which now exhibited a broad band of 
breakers. But we felt stout hearted, even in a moment 



THE GULF. 



21 



of indecision, when it was suspected that we were miss- 
ing the narrow passage and driving to destruction. There 
was an instant when we seemed on the point of being 
overwhelmed by the huge masses of foam which rose 
like columns on either hand, and took the wind out of 
the sail. In fact, we gave the southern breakers a very 
perilous shave ; yet all sat steady, and in another minute, 
the bar and the gulf were behind us, and we were pass- 
ing with wind and tide up the river Panuco. 

How beautiful appeared those green and wooded 
shores — how delicious the perfume from the scented 
mimosa bushes on the banks — how welcome the sight of 
the firm land and its habitations ! 

A sail of six miles brought us after dark to the new 
town, I believe the most heedless of us felt his .heart 
swell with emotion of gratitude to God for our deliver- 
ance. Before us, the setting sun glistened sweetly on 
all objects — while behind, it lighted up the white bar, 
over which we could discern the masts of the Halcyon 
as she stood in relief, against the dark curtain of clouds 
thickening in the windward. We met a boat load of 
water going out to her under the care of the supercargo ; 
but it never reached her, as by the time they got to the 
bar, the night and coming storm forbade the attempt ; 
and I may at once mention, that long before dawn, the 
ill-fated Halcyon, without bread, water, and with all her 
passengers, save eight, who contrived, like ourselves, to 
land, had been compelled once more to spread her wings, 
and to speed on the breath of a second violent norte out 
to sea ; and that ten days elapsed before we heard of her 
third approach to the coast. 

This trial was spared De Pourtales, M'Euen, and 
your humble servant; and we never forgot to bless 
God, day by day, for it. At the same time we had our 
trial, being reduced to one shirt a piece, and to a state 
of great impatience, which is not to be wondered at 
when you learn that we were here in a position where 
we could neither advance nor recede, that the period 
of three short months was all which our other arrange- 



22 



TAMPICO. 



ments could permit us to devote to New Spain, and 
that from circumstances hereafter to be explained, one 
third of this time was swallowed up on the very thresh- 
old of the country. 

My next shall introduce you to the Fonda de la Bolza, 
as our melancholy place of sojourn at Tampico. 



LETTER II. 

It was well that our minds, on landing, were really 
disposed to contentment, and that we were inclined to 
overlook minor grievances in our escape from far great- 
er, otherwise, there were circumstances attending our 
first debut in this land of delights, teeming, as we sup- 
posed, with gold and silver, and the richest fruits of the 
earth, which were certainly far from agreeable, setting 
aside the causes of trial at which I hinted at the close of 
my last letter. 

The first thing we experienced, which considerably 
surprised us on placing foot in the town, was the great 
difficulty of finding a shelter : and we were in the end 
fain to put up, all three, with a small room in the second 
story of a square, ill-built, open, wood barrack, the ground 
floor of which served as a billiard room and gambling 
house to the piebald population of Tampico de las Ta- 
maulipas. 

The second thing which quite horrified us, was the 
difficulty of procuring food wherewith to satisfy the ap- 
petites of three able-bodied gentlemen just from sea. 
Eggs we found were rare, meat was rarer, bread the 
rarest of all : and, except at certain hours of the day 
when it was doled forth in most apologetic morsels, 
could not be had for love and money. 

The third thing in my list, which nearly petrified us, 
was the cold. Lying under the tropic of Cancer, we 



TAMPICO. 



23 



Were absolutely forced to rise in the night, and dress 
ourselves before we could sleep. 

The fourth— but no, I will save a few miseries to qual- 
ify some future page of enjoyment. 

As late as 1825, the site of the present town of Tam- 
pico was solely occupied by a few Indian huts, and the 
feeble commerce carried on in the port was concen- 
trated at the Pueblo Viejo, or Old Town, situated on 
the shore of a shallow lagoon a few miles distant, in the 
state of Vera Cruz. The difficulty of approach, added 
to the heavy dues exacted for all goods crossing into the 
state of Tamaulipas on their road to the interior, seems 
to have directed the attention of the merchants and 
other speculators to the present site. And truly no pos- 
sible position could have been better chosen, as it is 
nearer the bar, situated on the main river, with sufficient 
depth of water to admit vessels of burden to anchor 
close to the town, and, moreover, commands an unimpeded 
interior navigation for one hundred and twenty miles 
up the country. Were it not for the annual visits of the 
yellow fever, and the irremediable difficulties which the 
interposition of the bar imposes upon the merchant, there 
is no doubt that Tampico would become the most flour- 
ishing port in New Spain. As it is, vessels are frequent- 
ly detained four or five months ; being blown off and on 
by the frequent severe gales, before they can unload and 
get inside the bar ; and held prisoners as long, before 
they can cross it again. 

The new town is built in regular squares, upon the 
narrow and depressed termination of a rocky peninsula, 
at the lower extremity of a cluster of lakes which 
empty their waters into the gulf by the river Panuco. 
The houses have no pretension to uniformity in their 
style of architecture. The European merchant builds 
substantial stone stores and dwelling houses, according 
to the fashion of his country. The American runs 
up his flimsy clap board edifices. The Mexican of 
Spanish descent exhibits his taste and his knowledge 
of the climate by low thick walls, gayly painted and 
flat-roofed habitations, with internal courts ; and the 



24 



TAMPICO. 



Indian raises his bamboo cage, plastered with mud, and 
thatched with palm leaves, according to the custom of 
his forefathers. 

The population is of course the most mongrel that 
can be conceived. The commerce of the port is prin- 
cipally in the hands of foreigners ; the imports con- 
sisting of every imaginable fabric, whether their intro- 
duction is consistent with the existing laws of the re- 
public or not. Smuggling is reduced to a system. 
The exports are confined to specie and fustic alone. 
Of the former, seven millions of dollars from the upper 
provinces were shipped at this port alone, during the 
year 1833. 

The sum of the population the preceding year, be- 
fore the cholera broke out, had been estimated at five 
thousand. Of these, three thousand are said to have 
been swept away : and though the town was rapidly 
recruiting its numbers at the time of our visit, the enor- 
mous price paid for every article, whether of foreign or 
domestic production, as well as for labour, is hardly to 
be credited. Wages for the poorest mason or carpenter, 
generally English or German, amounted to three or four 
dollars a day : indeed I knew one instance of a " turn 
out" of the workmen employed upon the house of one 
of the principal merchants, who were not content with 
four dollars, but laid a claim to six ! The most ragged 
urchin lying all day under the shade in the street, if 
asked to lend a hand to aid the operations of the mer- 
chant for a few hours, will not stir till he has made his 
bargain for a couple of dollars payment. You cannot 
cross the river, a row of five minutes, for less. To come 
up from the bar, a distance of six miles, though you be 
ten in company — ten dollars per head is the sum de- 
manded. Good law, and good physicking — and one 
might add, good advice, that cheapest of all articles in 
an ordinary state of society— cannot be had for love or 
money. This, among a beggarly, half-naked population, 
(I cry your pardon for speaking so of a sovereign people,) 
would be perfectly laughable, if it were not felt to be a 
serious matter. You may remark that both classes, 



TAMPtCO. 



25 



native and foreign, have the same lust of gain ; they 
only differ in their mode of following it, the one striving 
for it by hook and crook, the others waiting till it drops 
before their noses. 

While I am scrawling these general outlines upon pa- 
per, I may at once say that the tone of society is neither 
creditable to the superior education of European resi- 
dents, nor to the lofty pretensions of the Mexican em- 
ployes, who form the nucleus of native society here. The 
latter are ignorant and debased, insufferably bigoted and 
proud : jealous of foreigners, and, I believe, the majority 
here, as throughout the country, thoroughly unprincipled. 
Extraordinary indeed must the virtue be, which will 
make the possessor sensible to stern justice, and insensi- 
ble to a bribe. 

As to religion — name it not : the God of the South is 
Mammon. There is nothing in the degraded ultra-Cath- 
olicism of New Spain which can touch the heart and 
elevate human nature ; and unfortunately the majority 
of the young European merchants who resort here to 
drive their gainful commerce, evince by word and deed, 
that the lessons of their youth, and the God of their 
fathers, are alike forgotten. Had there been more fam- 
ily men among them, one might perhaps have met with 
more honourable exceptions. Like many mauvais sujets 
all the world over, they were in general good-tempered, 
serviceable fellows ; and, personally, we had nothing to 
complain of, as far as our slight intercourse with them 
went. 

I have summarily mentioned the two principal classes 
of the inhabitants, forming, as it were, the elite of the 
town. It may be observed of the common people, that, 
little as can be said in their favour as a mass, individual- 
ly they are by far the most picturesque in form, manner, 
and clothing. Their characters and costumes are as 
various as their blood. The poor Indian is distinguished 
by his sandalled foot, miserable attire, and subdued air. 
He, at least, seems to have gained nothing by the change 
of masters. How should he ! He was the slave of the 
few, now he is the slave of the many. If the Spaniard 

c 



26 



TAMP1C0. 



did little to raise the character of the conquered vassal, 
the Mexican does less, if possible, to instruct the darker 
skin whom he pretends to consider politically as his 
equal, but whom, in fact, he always treats as his inferior. 
They are as they ever were — governed by the priests^ 
and kept in utter ignorance. They supply the market 
with fruits, water, and vegetables. 

You have here the modern Mexican of every degree, 
from the substantial ranchero, or proprietor, bespurred, 
and bedizzened in the full and showy Mexican costume 
of stamped leather, embroidered vest, and gaudy serape, 
and curbing a wild horse loaded with furniture ; or the 
trusty arriero, with his long string of mules, his precious 
cargo of specie, and his train of assistant mozos ; down 
to the poor adventurer whose whole wardrobe consists 
of a pair of faded velveteen trousers silt halfway up the 
leg, and a tawdry cloak, haunting the gambling table, 
and living upon what fortune sends. 

The costumes are extremely picturesque from their 
diversity of colour and pattern, and the brilliant hues 
in fashion. I have omitted to mention the soldiery, than 
which a more shabaroon, cutthroat set, whether officers 
or men, I never beheld. It is said that they fight well. 
I do not dispute the on dit, but from all the evidence I 
could ever collect, I have considerable difficulty in be- 
lieving it. I think they would run better ; and I know 
that on most occasions, they do so with very slight prov- 
ocation. As to costume, nothing could be more divert- 
ing. There was an orderly in attendance on a general 
officer dwelling in our vicinity, who used to shamble 
past our quarters every morning at a certain hour, garbed 
in a short coatee, richly embroidered with worsted, 
a clumsy sword, a cap and sash, and never a strap or 
shred upon his lower limbs — saving your presence. 

The Fonda de la Bolza, where you have seen us 
lodged, was, at the time of our visit, in the hands of a 
Frenchman. He was on the point of retiring with a 
handsome independence drawn from divers sources: 
to wit, the gleanings of the billiard tables below stairs — 
the proceeds of the miserable lodgings above, let to gen- 



TAMPICO. 



27 



tlemen who could, unfortunately, not better themselves ; 
those of a bar for the dispensation of aqua ardiente, 
(strong waters,) lemonade, and liqueurs ; a table d'hote, 
morning and evening, furnished with a little fish, a little 
flesh, and a little fowl, and garnished with gizzard, tripe, 
ox cheek, yams, black beans, and bananas ; and lastly, a 
gaming table in a retired piazza, over which he acted as 
presiding genius and banker. 

Uncomfortable within, and environed with filth and 
garbage without, there was little in the Fonda to keep 
us willing prisoners ; for we happened to be addicted 
neither to tippling nor gambling ; and our first care af- 
ter realizing our position, was to contrive the means of 
passing as much of our time as possible out of doors. 

A few days gave us an insight into all the capabilities 
of the spot where we were cooped up. Society, I have 
said, was very confined. The young foreigners, when 
emancipated from their counting houses, passed their 
evenings in riding in the vicinity ; playing at bowls, or 
worse, at monte ; or made an attempt to get up a waltz 
by the aid of a poor pianoforte, a fife, and a pair of ma- 
trons. Books and literature, or the study of natural his- 
tory, had no votaries among them. Now and then a 
tawdry masquerade, in which all classes mingled, was the 
amusement of the evening ; but they were dull and stu- 
pid as might be, and only to be surpassed in stupidity by 
the fandangoes danced by the lower orders once or twice 
a week, under an open thatched shed, in the outskirts of 
the town. 

By aid of sundry letters of credit, and the real kindness 
of the gentleman who acted as English and American 
consul, to whom we were all along greatly indebted, we 
soon achieved the purchase of horses. They may always 
be purchased — as to selling them, that, we found on 
divers occasions, to be quite another affair. We also 
hired an orderly to wait upon our donships : and set to 
work to make such preparations for our journey into the 
interior as were in our power, in the absence of all the 
accoutrements purchased at New-Orleans for the purpose ; 
and moreover took occasion, as weather and temper in- 



28 



TAMPICO, 



vited, to garb ourselves in our best — in which you will 
recollect we were not much embarrassed by variety of 
choice — to sneak out of our den at the Bolza, and ride 
about the environs. 

These rides, however, were principally confined to* 
the evening hours preceding sunset, and to the back of 
the ridge on the San Luis Potosi road, from many of the 
banana and sugar plantations on which line, the view over 
the nearer lakes, and towards the distant Sierra Madre, 
a spur of w r hich appeared far to the southward, was un- 
commonly beautiful 

A rocky bluff overhanging the Panuco, at the upper 
end of the town just above the market, was the scene 
of almost a daily visit, as it commanded an extended view 
over the distant country both far and near. A little 
above this point, the river Tammasee, draining the Lago 
Chairel, and many other lagoons covering a vast tract of 
country to the westward, forms its junction with the 
Panuco or Tula, which comes from afar, flowing in a 
most graceful sweep among low wooded islands from the 
south west. Beyond the farther shore lies the lagoon 
of Pueblo Viego ; and farther to the south, far in the 
distance, the fertile uplands of the Huastec, and the ad- 
vanced spurs of the eastern Cordillera of Mexico. 

There is yet a distant object, which excites the mar- 
vel of the traveller at Tampico, and this is the Bernal, an 
isolated mountain, rising like a huge stack, with smooth 
perpendicular sides, and a jagged summit, over the level 
line of the horizon to the westward. It is about thirty 
leagues distant, if we were rightly informed. 

Immediately above Tampico, the peninsula, which is 
rendered such by the lagoon Carpentaro at the back of 
the town, continues to rise gradually towards the west- 
ward, and appears crowded by the Indian huts. They 
I and their bamboo enclosures are nearly buried in a 
* tangled labyrinth of weed of the Solanum species, over- 
topped occasionally by a banana, or the tall mutilated 
' trunk of a yellow- wood tree. 

At early morning the landing below the bluff might b© 



TAMPICO. 



2 



observed beset by the market boats and canoes of the 
Indians, laden with the produce of the farms of the upper 
district — sugarcane, bamboo, hay, and fruit, or with loads 
of sweet water brought down the Tammasee. At the 
same hour the shore was lined by females standing up to 
their knees in water, patiently labouring at the purifica- 
tion of some article of apparel, in defiance of the alli- 
gators swarming on the neighbouring swampy shore, 
and disporting themselves in the river. Lower dow r n, 
abreast of the custom house, and busy market place, 
appeared the various foreign merchant vessels at anchor ; 
and still farther to the left, the range of hills which rise 
above Pueblo Viejo, and form the right bank of the Pa- 
nuco to the gulf. Nothing could exceed the picturesque 
appearance of many of the figures which here continu- 
ally passed before us, or the classic character of the 
women, laden w 7 ith the Etruscan-shaped water jar of the 
country ; and many a time were we allured to maintain 
our post, till the heat of the sun, and the effluvia of putrid 
carcasses which line the shore, forced us to retire. The 
most striking features of the same view were to be com- 
manded from any of the farms situated to the right of the 
St. Luis Potosi road, which, from the peculiar water-girt 
position of the town, formed the only evening ride of all 
the gallants of Tampico ; the road to the bar being 
nearly impassable, on account of the state of the inter 
vening swamps. 

Every evening during this period of detention, our 
tawdry retainer, Juliano, appeared about an hour before 
sunset, with our horses, at the door of the Bolza, and 
mounting, we never failed to forget the ennui of our 
position, and the heat and annoyances of midday, in our 
two hours' gallop amid scenes of such beauty. 

But you will not be tempted to suspect that I could be, 
with my prying disposition, in a new country, teeming 
with novelty and wonders in natural history, without a 
partial resumption of my wonted habit of an occasional 
stroll on foot, in spite of heat, insects, and the robbers, 
from whom there was of course some risk as in other 
highly civilized countries. " What was the heat to me," 

c2 



30 



TAMPICO. 



thought I, " I can bear it ; and the insects, they are what 
I have come in search of. What are the robbers to me, 
they will not find my present wardrobe worth cutting 
my throat for so leaving my two companions to their 
^pdentary philosophy, and their siestas, which were some- 
times taken by anticipation in the morning as well as 
afternoon — as soon as the weather became genial, I 
might be daily seen, after securing a breakfast, which, con- 
sidering how doubtful the dinner was, was a very neces- 
sary precaution, stealing off up to the bluff, and among the 
fragile Indian huts. My accoutrement consisted of a 
good cudgel, a long sharp knife, the same that had ope- 
rated upon the bisons, a few thousand entomological pins, 
a bag for seeds, and a broad-eaved palmetto sombrero. 

That was certainly a species of intoxication I All 
was new 7 , except the earth I trod upon — trees, shrubs? 
plants, insects, and birds. I gathered, examined, im- 
paled. No flower courted my admiring gaze in vain* 
No insect hummed in my ear unattended to. If I skirted 
the riverside — there was the garrulous jackdaw with 
his mates quarrelling in their indescribable manner 
among the glossy leaves and innumerable stems of the 
mangroves ; the white snow crane standing motionless 
in the shallow water, or a flight of vultures hovering 
over a dark corner, where my approach had scared 
them from a bloated carcass — not unfrequently a human 
one. Farther, the huge slimy log, half buried in the 
mud, crowded with terrapins ; and the loathsome alli- 
gator squatting among the reeds on the shore. I would 
then follow one of those narrow winding paths cut in 
that thick dense shrubbery which covers a great portion 
of the surface of the country in the vicinity of Tarn- 
pico — a wilderness of curious trees and thickets, matted 
and woven together with ten thousand creepers and 
parasitical plants, with their graceful hanging flowers, 
seed vessels — vines, passifloras, and splendid convolvuli 
rendered quite impervious by the thorny nature of the 
covert, and the rank growth of prickly aloes which form 
the undergrowth. These were the paradise of the par- 



TAMFICO* 



31 



rot and other gaudy rivals. Here and there, a small 
enclosure of sugarcane, and a picturesque Indian hut, 
would rise on the ordinary solitude of my stroll. 1 al- 
ways found the pure-blooded native friendly ; and a yard 
of sugarcane, a gourd of water, and perhaps a glass of aqua 
ardiente, were always at my service. For a whole week 
I found these daily predatory walks perfectly delightful. 
I rushed into every thicket, I culled every flower, I 
handled everything within reach, and longed to handle 
a great deal which was beyond it. I went wheresoever 
1 listed, nothing doubting ; and you certainly have no sus- 
picion of the cause which was all this time, silently but 
surely, operating a total change in my taste, habits, and 
pursuits. 

I have described what I was the first week ; I will now 
tell you what I was the second, and, in fact, as long as I 
remained in the lower country. My love of locomotion 
remained the same, but all my eagerness and fire to 
make collections, and to touch what I saw, were utterly- 
extinguished. I walked abroad it is true, but it was with 
the noli-me-tangere air of a spruce gentleman in a street 
full of chimney-sweepers. My eyes ro&med as they 
had hitherto done — but as to contact with flower or 
leaf, however curious or beautiful it might be, that I 
most scrupulously avoided. I found it was one thing to 
catch crickets, or gather lilies, daisies, or daffodils in 
England, and another to make collections under the 
tropics. 

In fact, here the insects and the flowers are in league 
for mutual defence ; every leaf, every spray holds its 
myriads of garapatos, a species of wood bug, from the 
size of a small pin head to that of a pea ; and the 
slightest touch is sure to bring a host upon your person, 
where, attaining the skin, they silently and insensibly 
bury themselves to the neck, with their barbed claws, 
and are seldom perceived till they are too firmly fixed to 
extract without danger ; and at the best, cause great ir- 
ritation, and often inflammation. Now in consequence 
of my love of natural history, I had become a perfect 
pasture for these omniverous nuisances, with others of 



TAMPICO, 



their confraternity, not to be described ; and at the end 
of the term indicated, what between the attacks of the 
garapatos without, and the nightly wounds inflicted 
within doors by myriads of moschetoes — which are here 
very large and sanguinary, not quite as large as a jack- 
snipe — I was upon the verge of a fever, and solemnly 
abjured my occupation. It was nearly three weeks be- 
fore I lost all the consequences of my imprudence, for 
such it was, and never can I sufficiently appreciate the 
real merit of those patient, indefatigable, and rhinoceros- 
skinned men, who have succeeded in enriching our Eu- 
ropean collections with the wonders of the torrid zone. 

Such was the terror which the torment I had been 
subjected to inspired, that, as long as we were in the 
tierres calientes, to which these pests are fortunately con- 
fined, I never ran unnecessary risks ; and after any ac- 
cidental contact with tree or shrub, instituted the or- 
dinary patient search to which all must submit. 

Meantime the season advanced. About the close of 
the month we had begun to hope that the Halcyon might 
make its appearance, and frequently climbed up to the 
mirador, in one of the tallest houses, to sweep the sea- 
line beyond the white bar with the telescope ; but alas, 
on the 1st of February another norte set in, and another 
week was spent in doubt and uncertainty. At length, 
on the morning of the 7th, a favourable wind of a couple 
of days' duration enabled a small fleet of inward-bound 
vessels to approach the port ; and among these, the Eng- 
lish packet, for the arrival of which a heavy cargo of 
specie had been for some time collecting from the in- 
terior at the consul's office ; and, late in the evening, the 
Halcyon was announced without the bar. The follow- 
ing day we learned that she had been buffeted to and fro 
in the interval by two successive nortes, destitute of 
water, but what could be gathered from the clouds ; 
with the loss of their boat, and one of their hands ; and 
with cabins overrun by most loathsome vermin, from the 
vile habits of most of those on board. gFurther, that all 
communication with the shore was interdicted by the 



PUEBLO VIEJO. 



33 



custom house, till such time as the goelette's papers were 
pronounced to be in order, in other words, till the par- 
ties should be agreed as to the amount of the bribe de- 
manded by the authorities for the introduction of the 
contraband cargo. So here we were still in as great a 
dilemma as ever. No expostulation would serve our 
purpose for some days, and there seemed to be every 
probability of the vessel's being again blown out to sea, 
before the disgraceful intrigues should come to a conclu- 
sion, till, after much trouble and expense, we w 7 ere al- 
lowed to anticipate her only, to go on board as she lay 
beyond the bar, and land our effects. Still difficulties 
beset our path, and what with one thing and another, a 
further detention of a fortnight was our destiny before 
we were enabled to complete our arrangements, and set 
out for the interior. The causes of this detention would 
have been ludicrous at any other time, but in our posi- 
tion they were serious enough. 

Without entering into the detail, I may cull one or two 
pictures from the time thus spent, as they stand recorded 
in my memory, or on my journals. 

I have casually mentioned the Pueblo Viejo, or old 
town. It was not unfrequently our wont, on the early 
mornings of those fervid days which filled up the intervals 
between the nortes, to hire one of the pleasant little 
boats, which were always at your command if you would 
pay for them, and seek under their white awnings on the 
breezy surface of the river, that comfort which the great 
heat of the w r eather denied ashore. My favourite ex- 
cursion was to descend the Panuco, till we made the 
opening of the small broken channel which w 7 inds 
between oyster beds and green verdant banks, and 
forms the communication with the southern lagoon, upon 
whose shore the old settlement is situated. At such times 
the morning breeze would generally fill your sail, and 
bring you without much labour under the little thatched 
landing place, which, once the scene of so much bustle, 
is now nearly deserted. 

The picturesque situation of Pueblo Viejo, and its old 
time-worn £!panish-built houses, lying at the foot of a steep 



34 



PUEBLO VIEJO. 



but bushy hill ; with the tranquillity reigning in the streets 
and environs, forms a pleasant contrast to the busy, half 
European, and more prosaic features of its more pros- 
perous rival. The peninsular position of Tampico, ren- 
dered it of necessity subject to a certain degree of mo- 
notony. Here there was none ; the town was low built 
and flat roofed, the facades of the houses mostly showing 
in the faded gayety of their colouring, what they had 
once been. Many had courts and porticoes, and a group 
of tasty old houses, of Spanish erection, near the humble 
church and in the vicinity a group of tall cocoa palms, 
marked the former seat of government. 

Were you inclined for an hour's stroll, that hour car- 
ried you up the undulating slope of the hills, amid a wil- 
derness of sweet flowers and shrubs, pausing from time 
to time to catch a glance of that broad and magnificent 
picture, of those lakes and rivers with their intermediate 
woods and plains, glowing in the sunshine, till gaining the 
crest called La Mir a, you might survey the country 
spread like a map at your feet on one hand, and on the 
other the deep blue waters of the gulf unfurled to the 
eastern horizon. Did you seek repose and shade, a foot- 
way, turning abruptly from the main road of the town 
against the bosom of the hill, brought you unexpectedly 
to the Fuenta, a little dell concealing one of the most 
beautiful and poetic springs in any land. How poetic ! 
how classic ! I have often exclaimed, when burying 
myself under the shade of the trees and luxuriant creep- 
ers, which, in untrimmed luxuriance, overhung that ro- 
mantic paradise of birds, butterflies, and garapatos, and 
scanning the groups of females gathered round its basin. 
The source lay concealed underneath a massive shrine of 
gray stone, to which convenient access was afforded by a 
descent of a few stone steps, while a long stone reservoir, 
extending for a dozen feet along the bank of the dell, 
richly overshadowed by a splendid line of matted creep- 
ers from the trees above, served the purpose of a con- 
venient place for washing. Its margin was generally 
crowded with females of all ages. The groups employed 
in filling their large earthen jars and bottles, the grace- 



PUEBLO VIEJO. 



35 



fully draped figures passing to and from, with their bur- 
dens poised on their heads, or a sturdy peasant, with his 
mule laden with two gigantic bottles of baked earth, 
waiting patiently for his turn in the deep cool shade, 
formed pictures of the most beautiful description. At 
the extreme termination of the little dell, a few ancient 
sibyls were ordinarily employed over a caldron sup- 
ported by poles, and simmering from the wood fires 
kindled under it, and the light blue smoke hovered among 
the branches of the aged trees, which rose from the 
thicket beyond. The Fuenta was evidently the lounge 
and trysting place of the town, and many a youthful 
dark-eyed gallant might be seen at times lolling upon the 
stone wall which hemmed in the reservoir. Occasion- 
ally a mounted cavalier in all his bravery would dash up 
the little vista at full career, till within a foot of the en- 
closure, when a check from the powerful bit would bring 
his horse upon its haunches. He would pass a moment 
in the cool shade, quaff a gourd of the fresh water from 
the hand of one of the laughing group, perhaps get a 
plentiful sprinkle over his gay mantle in return for some 
saucy speech, and disappear as rapidly as he came. 

In short, I shall never forget la Fuenta de Pueblo Vi- 
ejo, though my enjoyment of its beauties was always 
qualified by the knowledge, that I never quitted it with- 
out carrying off a goodly colony of garapatos, besides 
sundry ants, with which the whole country about Tam- 
pico swarms. There is a species called the arriero or 
carrier, from its peculiar habits, and 1 have frequently 
been tempted to observe them minutely. Their nests 
are formed below the surface, and must be very exten- 
sive, judging from the immense length of the trains which 
may be observed proceeding to and from them upon the 
surface, and the quantity of vegetable matter introduced 
into them. The labourers are seen moving in two dis- 
tinct columns, strictly adhering to the rule of the road, 
upon pathways of even breadth throughout, as nicely in- 
dicated and beaten from the incessant passage, as those 
of busy men. They lead frequently into the bushes, to 
some tree or shrub, which has been fixed upon by com- 



36 



PUEBLO VIEJO. 



mon consent, for the scene of their laborious devast* 
ation. The weight and size of the loads carried by these 
minute insects are truly astonishing. They are furnished 
with a strong pair of serrated forceps, with which they 
operate upon the leaves and flowers with great force and 
rapidity ; and that must be indeed an unaspiring denizen 
of the little republic, who does not stagger off with a 
cargo thrice his own bulk. 

There was a small shrub of about a yard in height, 
with bright green leaves, and pretty white jessamine- 
shaped flowers, which I soon discovered to be a favour- 
ite ; and the pathway leading from it to the distant hole, 
might not inaptly be compared to a gay town promen- 
ade on a sunny day, crowded by fine ladies armed with 
green and white parasols, for it was difficult to distin- 
guish the bearer under the burden which he elevated to 
keep it out of the way of his neighbour's, or his own 
toes. The rapidity with which they move, is withal 
marvellous. I was more than once philosopher enough 
to oppose a temporary obstruction to the regularity of 
their proceedings, by placing a pebble upon the aperture 
of the nest. You must have a lively imagination, if you 
can fancy the scene which ensued, or conceive the hur- 
ry, and bustle, and confusion of the increasing crowd, 
with their gaudy burdens ; the alarm which ran like wild- 
fire along the lines; the quarrels which ensued among 
the impatient and short-tempered, and the busy impor- 
tance of sundry knowing old ants, which would drop 
their cargo, and, climbing the obstruction, take a survey 
of the nature and extent of the evil. 

Our arrangements advanced slowly, and for at least 
ten days we had alternately to postpone and refix the 
day of final start. 

We found that the country, all El Dorado as it might 
be to those about us, was not likely to prove so to us, for 
the price of the most simple article was so excessive, 
that our eyebrows and our shoulders threatened to 
take an habitual elevation, from the constant state of 
surprise and vexation to which we were reduced. 



PUEBLO VIEJO. 



37 



1 have a bad memory, but I recollect that such a thing 
as change for a dollar was never required ; indeed, it 
was as much as you could do to get it for a doubloon. 
I recollect we paid eight Spanish dollars for a ham ; and 
that to shoe a horse, required three dollars a shoe, and 
a dollar to a man to hold the animal's nose : though all our 
steeds were patient as sheep, expostulation was vain — 
such was the custom. 

The heat grew more and more oppressive daily, the 
moschetoes more bloodthirsty at evening, and more 
knowing in their attacks upon the faulty corners of our 
moscheto nets during the w r atches of the night. The 
nights were splendid, w 7 ith a glorious round moon beam- 
ing on the river and on the lakes, by the light of which 
the wild dogs on the opposite shore held most uproar- 
ious festivals, to the utter destruction of our rest — the 
more so, as the numerous dogs of the town never ceased 
to yell in concert. 

The 24th of February the heat was almost unbearable ; 
but in the afternoon a film was drawn over the sky and 
across the sun, and before midnight we were all shiver- 
ing in a norte. However, we had sent our horses over 
the river to Pueblo Viejo the preceding day, and deter- 
mined to proceed. We left our prison about 10 a.m., 
crossing the boiling surface of the river with our bag- 
gage, not without danger ; after a thousand detentions, 
finally got to horse, anS on the approach of the evening, 
in spite of the lowering sky, advanced two leagues on 
our route inland to Tampico Alta, once, at the time of 
the conquest, if historians lie not, a town with seventy 
thousand inhabitants, now a village of two dozen poor 
huts, ind a small rudely built church. It is situated on a 
high commanding bluff, within view of the gulf, and 
rising over an upland and undulating country, carpeted 
with magnificent shrubberies of low trees and bushes. 
Over the general level of the vegetation, here and there 
a gigantic banian spread its hundred arms, the resort of 
numberless parrots ; or the high white pyramidal clus- 
ter of flowers of the Spanish palmetto rose conspicuous- 
ly above the bushes. 



38 



TAMPICO ALTA. 



LETTER III. 

The norte continued to blow strongly the following 
morning; and contented with having effected our es- 
cape, and an advance of two whole leagues into the 
country, we resolved, by common consent, to remain 
tranquilly at Tampico Alta till we saw what another 
day might bring forth. 

We were luxuriously lodged in one of the mud cot- 
tages, in a windowless apartment, without a stick of 
furniture but what we brought into it* That, however, 
was more than sufficient to fill it, as our camp beds, with 
which we had been fortunately furnished from Europe 
for this tour, completely occupied three fourths of the 
floor. 

So here we abode, leaving our retainers, whose num- 
ber had now increased to five in all, to make the most 
of the halt with the horses and mules under their care. 
We breakfasted and supped upon tortillas or maize 
cakes, fowls, Chili pepper, rice, coffee, and frijoles or 
black beans ; with the addition of an agreeable liquor, 
made of the fermented juice of the sugarcane. We 
looked to our accoutrements, cleaned guns and pistols, 
strolled in the forest, and at night enjoyed the most lux- 
urious rest, in our clean and well-appointed beds ; and 
blessed our stars, that we had turned our backs for ever 
upon the Halcyon, the Fonda de la Bolza — the heat, the 
impurities, and the nuisances of Tampico. Dull as it 
was without doors, I could not help strolling about, for 
a few hours, among the low woods, and did not fail, in 
spite of all my care, to gather a plentiful harvest of ga- 
rapatoes, to rid myself from which gave me an hour's 
employment in the evening. 

The following day, however, we were up betimes, and 
set seriously forward. 



TAMPICO ALTA. 



39 



The ordinary road from Tampico to the capital is a 
very circuitous one, passing by the towns of San Luis 
Potisi, Zacatecas, and Giianaxuato ; and we had decided 
to leave it far to the right or northwest : pursuing as 
an alternative the more direct, more difficult, but far 
more picturesque mule track of the Canada. 

I may here, without offending you, bring to your recol- 
lection thus much of the physical geography of the re- 
markable country which was now the scene of our ram- 
bles ; namely, that its peculiar geological structure admits 
of its surface being divided into three distinct parts — the 
(terras calientes, tierras templadas, and tierras frias. 
The first, the hot districts, lying on the Pacific and Atlan- 
tic border, and in greater or less contiguity to the sea, 
are fertile in sugar, indigo, bananas, and cotton ; and ex- 
hibit all the phenomena of the tropics. The second, the 
temperate lands, forming a zone of mountains and broad 
plains of four or five thousand feet elevation, are blessed 
with a climate of rare beauty, and favourable to many of 
the productions of our milder latitudes, while the third, the 
cold regions, occupying the central table land of the high 
Cordillera, are exposed to greater vicissitudes of heat and 
cold, and overlooked by the highest summits of the 
Mexican chain, rising into the region of eternal snow. 
Our progress from Tampico to the capital, which lies at 
an elevation of upward of seven thousand feet above the 
gulf, would accordingly give us a glance at each in turn. 

As our line of route has not been often described, I 
will give you as much detail as I am able. The in- 
correctness of the best maps, and the difficulty of getting 
t\vo people of the country to agree in assigning the same 
relative position to any given town or remarkable object 
beyond the bare line of the route, must necessarily throw 
a degree of indistinctness over my narration. 

Imagine us, then, mounted and setting forward from 
our homely quarters at Tampico Alta, like gentle knights, 
attended by our string of sumpter mules and serving men. 
I flatter myself that to a peaceful looker-on we afforded 
a gallant spectacle, and that our motley contrasted well 



40 



TAMPICO ALTA, 



with the wild country into which we immediately plunged ; 
while, in the eye of the predatory spectator, there was 
that in the glitter of our arms and the resolute look of the 
party which must have commanded respect, and quelled 
the desire of plunder. But that you may better judge 
yourself, I present you with the following extract from 
our muster roll. 

In advance rode Don Alberto, Don Carlos, and Don 
Carlos Jose, mounted upon three steeds of doubtful ped- 
igree — Blanco, Rosso, and Pinto, which had been kindly 
pressed upon our purchase by worthy acquaintances in 
Tampico, as possessing a thousand virtues, fitting them 
for the peculiar purpose for which we required them, 
and no faults but such as were to be absolutely of no ac- 
count to us. When they dozed — which was often — the 
prick of the enormous Spanish spurs which jingled at our 
heels incited them to action ; and when once upon a time 
we found them too lively, the pressure of the powerful 
Spanish bit soon reduced thern to order. For the jour- 
ney we preferred using the European saddle rather than 
the Mexican, and had accordingly included them in our 
purchases in New-Orleans. 

We were all armed with holster pistols and sabres, to 
which Pourtales and myself added our double-barrelled 
guns. M k Euen had furnished himself in New Orleans 
with a formidable dragoon sabre of such length that it 
quite put the light curved cimeters of his companions to 
the blush. Our costume was a marvellous mixture of 
European and Mexican ; the serape, the sombrero with 
its silver band, the scarlet sash, and jacket of the latter 
having been adopted, while the residue of the male out- 
fit was European. 

Our train was very long, and composed as follows: 
Two armed and mounted, ill-looking serving men, clad 
in the costume of their country, by name Juliano and 
Miguel — rogues both. The former had now been our 
equery and valet for a month. He was a smooth-look- 
ing varlet, with a soft voice, small and active person and 
habits. Now that he had money, there was an affecta- 
tion of spruce trimness in his clothing. He was in all a 



TAMPICO ALTA. 



41 



perfect contrast to his comrade — a huge-boned, powerful 
man, with strongly marked features, half shrouded by a 
mass of tangled black locks ; and who, we all agreed, 
would form the finest study in the world for a bandit. 
We never liked him or his looks, or his deep churchyard 
cough ; but necessity has no law. They were both 
armed with rusty sabres ; and Juliano had, moreover, 
stolen an unwieldy carbine from some dear confiding 
friend of his, and was wont to speak most confidently of 
his valour, and of the execution he was to perform in 
case of our being attacked by banditti, which was all 
along spoken of as a more than probable event. He had 
thrown us into convulsions of laughter at the very outset, 
at Pueblo Viejo, by a preliminary discharge of the 
mighty engine, which he had seen fit to indulge in pre- 
vious to the real battle which he expected, when we saw 
his diminutive person fairly overthrown by the recoil. 

Next in the train came Don Juan Espindola of Za- 
cualtipan, the arriero ; whom we had hired with a train 
of eight mules, to convey us and our baggage to the cap- 
ital. He was a worthy man ; and true, faithful and 
simple in manners, like most of his class. Our con- 
fidence in him was well placed. 

The arriero is the carrier of New Spain, and the little 
honesty and uprightness to be found in the country, seem 
to have fallen exclusively to the share of those of his 
rank and profession. The most precious commodities 
are unhesitatingly delivered to his care, merely enclosed 
in bags for conveyance to the coast, and the arriero 
never fails to perform his contract. Espindola had come 
down to Tampico, with a conducta ; and there we en- 
gaged him for the return, with as many of his mules as 
were necessary. The remainder were sent in advance 
under his domestics or mozos, two of whom, how T ever, 
accompanied us on foot as whippers-in ; and fine, active 
lads they were. In them the Indian blood predominated 
over the European. The arriero had, with our concur- 
rence, invited a certain friend of his, Don Gaetano, to 
accompany us, and to take advantage of our escort. To 
this arrangement we acceded with the more readiness, 

d2 



42 



LA MESSA. 



as, though evidently of a most unwarlike character, he 
added another to our number ; and had moreover been 
one of our fellow-prisoners in the Halcyon. I should 
still mention two saddle mules ; and then sum up our 
forces, as consisting, in all, of nine souls and seventeen 
quadrupeds. Whatever may have been the intrinsic 
value of our pluck, we certainly cut a rather imposing 
figure. 

Till we should arrive at the town of Zacualtipan, 
within four or five days' journey of the capital, there was 
nothing to fear from banditti, if common report spoke 
truly. 

Thus, you may imagine us, when once in motion on 
the morning of our quitting Tampico Alta, proceeding 
league after league, under any easy pace, through that 
beautiful undulating country, clothed with its gorgeous 
flowering thickets, to which I have already alluded. 
Many an expression of admiration burst from us as a new 
bird or splendid flower attracted our at tention. An 
occasional shot hazarded at a rabbit or pheasant, alone 
broke the silence which reigned over this waste but 
beautiful region. After about seven leagues' ride, we 
halted for two hours at a rancho, or farm, lor our break- 
fast of cabbage palm, salad, and eggs. Poor fare, you 
would say ; but, truth compelling, I must admit that sun- 
dry additions were supplied from our travelling stores, 
and to name them would at once let you into the secret, 
that, however warlike, we were not to be classed with 
those doughty warriors of old, who had " no stomach 
but to fight." 

From the vicinity of this farm, the undulating country 
for many miles became perfectly open, totally denuded 
of bushes, though occasionally studded with bands of 
thick forest, and altogether reminded us strongly of the 
great prairies, till about sunset, when we gained a swell- 
ing elevation affording a wide view towards the east. 
In that quarter the vast Laguna Tammiagua, only sep- 
arated from the gulf by a narrow band of sand hills, 
extended as far as the eye could reach. 

Shortly after, we arrived at a large hacienda, called 



LA MESSA. 



43 



La Messa, situated on a commanding eminence, at the 
edge of prairie country alluded to, and overlooking, to 
the south, a deep glen full of wood, and a far-stretching 
expanse of roundish hills covered with luxuriant vegeta- 
tion. 

In the absence of more regular places of entertain- 
ment, the custom of the country authorizes the traveller 
to make his halt with his retinue at the first farm which 
may suit his convenience ; and though the hacienda is 
in general the country residence of a rich and wealthy 
proprietor, we felt no scruple in dismounting and asking 
shelter and provender for .ourselves and our party. 

And here I have to record one of those strange ren- 
counters which the Rambler has sometimes to note upon 
his tablets in utter amazement how they are brought 
about. 

On riding round the corner of one of the principal 
buildings, what was my surprise to see my friend Pour- 
tales folded in the embrace of a huge brawny young 
Mexican — and yet greater to find, on dismounting, that I 
was to be honoured with a fraternal squeeze from the 
same arms, before I could see what face there might 
possibly be appended to them. I was not long, how- 
ever, in recognising in the athletic, sunburnt young man, 
who thus welcomed us to his home, a certain smooth- 
faced, ungainly stripling, who had been our fellow-pas- 
senger two years before, in the New York packet, from 
Havre de Grace to America. He had been sent from 
Mexico to Paris, to be instructed in the language, litera- 
ture, and manners of the politest country in Europe; 
and, at that epoch, having finished his term of education, 
was returning with his bundle of acquisitions, to en- 
lighten his benighted countrymen. On shipboard, where 
he was generally known by a singular sobriquet be- 
stowed on him by my light-minded companion, namely, 
" Amiable et execrable Tampico" we had of course made 
acquaintance. We found that he had learned to eat 
with a knife and fofk, to dress like a civilized man, to 
talk a little bad French ; to dance, and to play the 
monkey, which he did a merveille, clumsily aping Pour- 



44 



LA MESSA. 



tales in his various changes of costume, and his whimsical 
contrivances for banishing ennui ; and emulating the 
sailors in their expeditions to the top-gallant-mast head. 
After landing, we had lost sight of him* We heard, 
however, that he had been delivered up by the captain 
with a regular bill of lading to the Mexican consul at 
New York, and to his utter dismay and disappointment, 
not being considered accomplished enough, had been sent 
to a " finishing academy" in Pennsylvania. Many adven- 
tures, and the multitude of strange personages with whom 
we had come in contact during the rambles of the two 
past years, had driven him out of our remembrance, till 
most unexpectedly we found his two long, Indian-shaped 
arms locked round our necks at La Messa, a brown 
athletic Mexican, utterly forgetful of all the polite edu- 
cation he had undergone, curbing a wild horse, and 
hunting a wilder leopard. He seemed to be absorbed in 
his hunting schemes ; and, instead of a collection of 
books, valued himself upon the number of lion, ounce, 
and wildcat skins which decorated his apartment. His 
thin and meager French was richly larded with noble 
sounding Spanish words and phrases ; but w T e contrived 
to converse about old and new times. 

La Messa, the property of his uncle, to whom he 
seemed to be considered as future heir, was the centre 
of a vast estate stretching many leagues on every side. 

From the specimen before us, however, nothing could 
exceed the poor homely style and rough living of these 
wealthy proprietors at a distance from the capital. 

Our evening meal, which we were invited to take with 
the family, was a sleepy entertainment, in which we tast- 
ed nothing but the burning Chile or red pepper with 
which every dish was seasoned ; and that done, we all 
packed together with Aimable et execrable Tampico into 
a small apartment, where, fortunately, the cold air of the 
norte, which was still blowing, prevented us from being 
at once suffocated by heat, and bitten to madness by the 
moschetoes. 

The following morning, after a loving adieu from our 



OSUHUAMA. 



45 



acquaintance who left the rancho at dawn to join in a 
tiger hunt in a distant part of the country, we continued 
our journey to the southward. 

Our route led us down into the dell below La Messa, 
and over the hillside opposite, till we entered a broad, 
green glade, stretching through the forest for some miles 
to the foot of the eminences upon which the large Indian 
village of Osuhuama is situated. We were quite unpre- 
pared for the vast panoramic view which unrolled itself 
to our view from the summit of a high conical mound, 
perched on the very edge of the declivity, with w 7 hich 
this, the first step as it were of the higher country, breaks 
down to the general level of the country in the vicinity 
of the coasts. 

The village, with its picturesque huts and enclosures 
of bamboo, and little patches of cultivation, lies scat- 
tered over the ridges of a number of broken hills. The 
church is nearly on the highest point, and directly at the 
foot of the mound whose form and position, in defiance 
of its size, would suggest the idea of its being artificial. 

Any description of the wide view to the north, west, 
and east, comprising in the latter direction the Laguna 
Tammiagua, and fading to the apparently illimitable 
horizon, would be utterly impossible. The slope of the 
hills displayed a wilderness of rank vegetation. To the 
south rose several groups of conical hills, in advance of 
the more distant chain to which we were gradually ap- 
proaching. 

The afternoon's march brought us some leagues on 
our road over an undulating country, covered for the 
most part with forests of palmetto ; and we took up our 
night's quarters at a poor rancho, tenanted by an old 
woman, and, unfortunately for us, preoccupied by a 
gambling party, whose drunken and lawless demeanour 
was sufficiently offensive and menacing to keep us in 
hot water for some hours ; when they were pleased to 
take their departure : relieving us from the necessity of 
either blowing out their brains, or being ourselves 
stabbed ; a choice of evils truly, but one which appeared 
for a while almost inevitable. 



46 



THE INDIAN HUT. 



The night was gloomy ; and the mountains in ad- 
vance half shrouded by curtains of dark clouds. I have 
a disagreeable recollection of the whole scene. I re- 
member, however, that both amusement, interest, and 
surprise, were excited in us by three distinct circumstan- 
ces : amusement at the extravagant joy and pride of 
heart evinced by Juliano, when a rabbit was killed with 
his mighty carbine, by Espindola ; interest at the visit of 
two fine boys, lineal descendants of Montezuma, from a 
a neighbouring rancho ; and surprise at the fact being 
mentioned to us, that the father of an old gallant who 
was the leader of the debauchees before named, was at 
that hour in sound health at the next hacienda, at the 
age of one hundred and twenty years. This rancho lay 
twenty-four leagues from Pueblo Viejo. 

March the first, we proceeded through the same bro- 
ken line of country. Some difficulty was experienced 
from our being several times entangled in jungles of 
bamboo, and in muddy swamps, or thick natural groves 
of lemon and orange trees ; till two o'clock in the after- 
noon, when the country became more open, and finding 
a poor Indian hut, beautifully situated, we halted to 
breakfast, and to repose ourselves and our animals. The 
cabin was constructed of light bamboo frames, thatched 
with palmetto leaves not only on the roof but the sides, 
and divided into two or three compartments, with coarse 
screens of grass matting. 

The inhabitants were all of the softer sex ; consisting 
of three young maidens, under the surveillance of two 
most forbidding crones. We here, if I recollect right, 
made our first experience of the difficulty to which the- 
traveller is exposed in Mexico, in persuading the Indian 
to furnish him, even if paid in advance, with the slightest 
food or provender either for man or beast. Nothing 
was to be had. No hail was the answer to every 
query. They had neither maize, nor chocolate, nor 
fodder, nor eggs, nor fowls ; nor bananas, uovfrijoles, nor 
tortillas, nor dried meat, nor even Chile. What did they 
live upon — for they were all, old and young, as plump as 
partridges. No hai ! was the only word you could ex- 



THE INDIAN HUT. 



47 



tort. However, there was no alternative^; our animals 
must rest, if they might not eat ; and we consequently- 
unsaddled, and began to amuse ourselves, as we might, 
in looking at the bone of our costly ham, and the pounded 
contents of our biscuit bag, more especially as Espindola 
whispered to us to have a little patience. Five minutes 
passed by, and not a word was said. A packet of cigar- 
itas was produced and passed round. What the old 
Venuses did not refuse, the young ones thought proper 
to accept. Espindola got into conversation by degrees 
with one of the elders, and Pourtales began to play the 
" irresistible" with another of the party. Good humour 
and confidence began to thaw distrust, and conquer pre- 
judice. By-and-by, old and young began to move list- 
lessly about. The charcoal fire was stirred up. Still 
there was no hurry. Another moment, and from under 
a cloth in a dark corner of the hut, the stone used in the 
preparation of tortillas cakes was produced ; and, as 
though by accident, a bowlful of maize flour was dis- 
covered. As it was there, one of the old squaws fell to 
work to knead the bread ; while the other, after looking 
very carefully about her, found a store of Chile and a bag 
of frijoles. This was not all. A guttural parley in their 
own language was followed by one of the girls stepping 
out with Espindola to a secret storehouse, from which 
he returned looking very sly with his arms full of rich 
golden ears of maize, and a bundle of fodder. By acci- 
dent, a little loophole in the same quarter flew open, and 
the premises w T ere immediately overrun by a quantity of 
poultry, rejoicing at their emancipation from the thral- 
dom to which they had evidently been subjected on our 
approach. More wonderful than all, we found that, ap- 
parently, quite unsuspected by the possessors, the hens 
had employed their time while thus hidden from the 
light of day in the production of a dozen fine eggs. In 
short, within an hour after the hut had been at the ex- 
tremity of famine, we were furnished with an excellent 
meal, and there were no signs at our departure that we 
left discontent behind us. This is strange, but nothing 
but what is very comprehensible ; being a remnant of 



48 



SANTA CATHARINA. 



old times and old policy, when, in consequence of the 
Spaniard's taking what he could find, without payment, 
the poor Indian always contrived to have nothing. 

The lesson was not lost upon us ; and, ever after, 
what between civility, affected indifference, and content, 
a timely use of cigaritas and soft words, we never had 
to leave an Indian hut unsatisfied. 

In the course of the evening, after passing through the 
noblest forests of live oak we had yet seen in the coun- 
try ; or over moist levels, where almost impenetrable 
thickets of bamboo cane clustered round the huge fan- 
tastic trunks of the banian ; and ten thousand vegetable 
strings and ropes wove a canopy overhead, we reached 
the Indian village of Santa Catharina, whose situation 
on an elevated plateau vies for beauty with that of its 
rival just described. We did not halt here, however, 
but pushing on over a fatiguing line of country by a 
deep miry track, came to a halt at a large and roomy 
rancho, where w r e found the needful accommodation, 
and the rest which a heavy day's journey of eighteen 
leagues made very welcome to our draggled train. A 
few miles to the left, rose a range of mountains covered 
with foliage to the very summit, and with singularly 
pointed and insolated rocks rising at intervals from their 
base. 

I pass rapidly over the next day's march, which lay 
across much the same kind of country, picturesque in the 
highest degree, from the broken character of the surface 
and from the rich and redundant character of the vege- 
tation. From the occasional bare ridges which we sur- 
mounted, w r e continued to command most extensive 
views over the Huastec, as the rich county at the foot 
of the higher chain is called. This part of the state of 
Vera Cruz, is, throughout, very thinly inhabited, and cul- 
tivation very sparingly applied to its surface. Indeed the 
cholera of the preceding year had swept away a large 
proportion of the Indian population ; and one extensive 
Indian village, at which w 7 e halted at noon, magnificently 
situated like all its neighbours, was nearly depopulated 
by its ravages. 



THE HACIENDA. 



Up to the close of this day, when, after passing over 
smother tract of country covered with palm forest, we 
halted at a large and rich hacienda, about four leagues 
from the foot of the branch of the Sierra Madra in whose 
recesses we were to seek the bed of the Rio de la Cana- 
da, as our future guide — we had seemingly surmounted 
no very considerable elevation, but had continually as- 
cended and descended the abrupt hills which appear to 
be heaped in picturesque confusion over a large tract of 
country between the coast and the foot of the main 
ranges. Occasionally, higher summits of evident volcanic 
origin are seen to rise from their bosom, but these are 
mostly isolated ; and though we had certainly been 
gradually rising ever since we left Tampico, it was not 
till we had advanced full fifty leagues from the coast 
that we gained the foot of the foremost spur of the Cor- 
dillera. Of course the whole of the country passed 
through belongs to the iierras calientes. 

The hacienda where we lodged on the evening of the 
fourth daj^s inarch from Tampico Alta, was situated on 
a plain very near the foot of the mountain. It has prin- 
cipally notched itself upon my memory, from the mag- 
nificent, free-standing banian trees in its vicinity, several 
of which measured upward of thirty feet in circum- 
ference. Here we were, as usual, well treated, paying 
moderately for whatever necessaries we were furnished 
with. 

Deep clouds resting on all the ridges in advance boded 
no good for the continuation of our journey the following 
morning. Indeed, it began to drizzle before our train 
could be set in motion ; nevertheless, we flattered our- 
selves that we might at least reach Chicontepec, the 
City on Seven Hills, which lay on the mountains rising 
before us at four leagues' distance. 

After two hours' ride, our mule path sank from the 
open hilly country into a deep glen strewed with rounded 
blocks of stone, which indicated that in the rainy sea- 
son it formed the bed of one of those torrents which, 
fed by the waters filtering through the porous structure 
of the mountains and table land above them, spring into 

E 



50 



CHICONTEPEC. 



existence and roll down on their short but furious course 
to the gulf. 

It was just at this period of our journey, when toiling 
over the broken ground, amid the green twilight shed 
into the deep defile through an almost impervious cano- 
py of the most gigantic forest trees, covered from the 
foot to the topmost twig with lithe creepers and enor- 
mous parasites, that the rain, which had now menaced 
for several days, began to descend upon us in torrents. 
If there was wind, we were not sensible of it at this 
depth ; but the rain poured perpendicularly down, as 
from a water spout. At the same time every object be- 
came shrouded in mist. We nevertheless dragged our- 
selves forward, till it appeared as though the vale termi- 
nated in a cul de sac against the precipitous but forested 
side of the mountain, when a sudden turn was given to 
the track, and following it, it began to ascend to the right, 
by a steep zigzag mule path. Climbing and dragging 
our spent horses after us, we surmounted one turn after 
another, till we thought that we should never arrive at 
the last. There was no sign of our gaining the summit. 
Whenever the mist rose or shifted for an instant, we 
caught a glimpse of the steep flanks of the mountain to 
the left, which seemed but a stone's throw distant. At 
length, after nearly two hours' climb, we suddenly reached 
the plateau, and entered the principal street of Chi- 
contepec. At this elevation we were above the region 
of the rain, and nearly above that of the clouds, for the 
mist was driving and thin, and an occasional gleam of 
sunshine gave us a glimpse of the objects around. The 
houses were much more substantial than any we had 
seen in the lower country, and a large church with a 
tower rose above a declivity we had surmounted. At 
what elevation Chicontepec is situated, I cannot guess, but 
it must be considerable. It is quite on the barren rocky 
crest of the mountains, which should be seven in number, 
according to the interpretation of the name ; and must 
command a view of great extent, but of which we saw 
nothing. After some trouble we discovered a poor meson, 
where we were allowed to dry and refresh ourselves. 



CHICONTEPEC. 



51 



As to the mules, it was long before we saw them all ar- 
rive, and became reassured that one or other, with his 
precious load, had not capsized, or missed his way. Juli- 
ano and the two mozos had been faithful to their trust ; 
but as to Miguel, we could hear nothing of him ; and it 
was not till a couple of hours had gone by, and long after 
Espindola, finding there was no fodder here, had gone 
forward with the mules, leaving Juliano to escort us, that 
we heard from a passer-by, that he had been seen lying 
by the roadside many miles back. " Un borrachio /" (a 
drunkard !) said Juliano, with a significant shrug of his 
shoulders ; always willing to throw odium on his fellow, 
and to contrast his own conduct, whenever it happened 
to be more correct, with that of his less crafty chum. 

After a ride of many hours over difficult and steep 
ridges, and through close but fertile valleys under partial 
cultivation — often enveloped in mist, and contimfally a 
prey to doubt as to our ever finding our arriero — we at 
length stumbled upon him at the edge of dusk, tending 
his mules at an humble rancho, in a pretty valley nestled 
in the mountains. And here we brought our wet and 
fatiguing day's journey to a close, by erecting our camp 
beds under an open palmetto shed, drying our accoutre- 
ments as well as might be, enjoying our frugal meal, and 
betaking ourselves to repose. 

At bedtime there were no signs of our borrachio; 
but in the middle of the night we found he had returned 
to his duty, as his churchyard cough was heard issuing 
from a shed on the premises. 

The weather seemed now to have done its worst, and 
a cloudless dawn heralded forth a bright sunny day ; 
how bright — how sunny — and how beautiful — amid such 
magnificent foliage and flowers, no pen can describe ! 
In brief, you will hear no more of clouds for some days 
to come. 

At noon, after traversing one considerable stream, we 
at length reached the valley of the Rio de la Canada, a 
clear river, occupying at this time of the year but a small 



52 



THE CANAB Ap- 



portion of the rock-strewn bed which overspreads a large 
extent of the low grounds. It is a tributary of the Tula, 
if my surmise is right. At the point where our pathway 
came upon it, the vale was comparatively open and spa- 
cious, though surrounded by mountains of considerable 
elevation, and there was much in the whole landscape 
which brought the scenery of the Italian Alpine valleys 
to my recollection j but four or five leagues higher up, 
shortly after the traveller has passed a large hacienda 
belonging to a wealthy cura on the left bank, it con- 
tracts ; and y for the succeeding thirty or forty miles, 
takes that peculiar character which has given a name to 
the river. 

The fifth and sixth of March were occupied in advan- 
cing from the priest's country seat, slowly up the magnifi- 
cent ravine, on a rough mule path, worn by the numer- 
ous conducta, with which this is one way of descent from 
the table land above ; threading thickets which strug- 
gled with the limpid mountain stream for possession of 
the chasm, and often riding along the bed of the river, 
which I believe had to be crossed considerably above a 
hundred times. 

We considered the scenery of the Canada superior to 
any w T e had ever seen, comparable to it — and we were,, 
as you know, no novices in mountain defiles. I nowhere 
met with the sublimity of an Alpine mountain gorge on 
a great scale, clothed with such beauty. A varied veg- 
etation, stimulated by the alternate vehemence of a trop- 
ical sun, and the gentle dews and moist showers from 
the mountains above, into an inconceivable rankness and 
richness of growth — all that is beautiful and gorgeous in 
colouring and curious in detail — birds, butterflies, in- 
sects, fruits, and flowers — are here presented to the eyes 
of the traveller, in the midst of a chaos of rent and riven 
rock and dizzy precipice, which would be worthy of the 
most savage defile of the most savage Alpine districts of 
Europe, No one who has not beheld with his own eyes, 
can imagine the vigour with which nature puts forth her 
strength under this incitement from alternate heat and 
moisture. 



THE CANADA. 



53 



League after league we moved forward in ecstasy. 
Every turn disclosed another matchless picture. It was 
here a grove of old and shattered trees of enormous 
growth bent over the surface of the river under the load 
of moss and flowering parasites which drew nourishment 
and life from their fibres ; their outstretched arms, strug- 
gling, as it were, in the interminable folds of the vines 
and creepers, whose festoons and garlands of flowers, 
fruit, or pods, entwined every bough to the highest 
twig. There again rose a thicket of flowering shrubs 
of all hues, glistening in morning dew, over which the 
insects and butterflies were gloating in the bright sun ; 
and such butterflies — the rainbow is dull and colourless 
in comparison ! 

Farther, the high gray precipice swept down perpen- 
dicularly, with its red, purple, and gray hues, innumer- 
able weather stains, and lichens, reflected in the still sur- 
face of the stream ; while its sheets of bare rock unveiled 
to the gaze of the passer-by, in the hundreds of thin 
strata, twisted, broken, entwined, and distorted into a 
thousand shapes, a page of nature's secret doings, which 
could not be contemplated without a feeling of awe. 
The upper portions of the precipices, where they broke 
down from the forested slope of the mountains above, 
were frequently overgrown with long strings of strong 
wiry grass, or by a peculiar species of cactus which rose 
like a whitish green column perpendicularly from the 
ledges. 

Then came the little opening at the entrance of some 
lateral valley, with its Indian hamlet, strips of cultiva- 
tion fully exposed to the broad sun, and groups of rich 
and sunny bananas, half shrouding the simple cabins of 
the poor natives: or, as a contrast, one of those dens 
of rubbish, situated under the shade of a beetling crag, 
in which everything seemed devoted to putrid destruc- 
tion ; where you moved in twilight through a mass of 
decaying vegetation ; where no living thing sported, and 
the passenger breathed the chill and humid damp of 
death, rottenness, and decay. 

e2 



54 



TLACOLULA. 



Four or five leagues from the entrance of the gorge, 
the signs of that tremendous convulsion, which has burst 
this channel through the heart of the mountains, are 
perfectly bewildering. The thin, laminated strata are 
broken and twisted in every possible manner ; and the 
river, which had never failed us in the earlier part of our 
journey, but had formed an abundant stream flowing in 
a chain of alternate rapids or lucid pools, was found to 
have totally disappeared, pursuing for some distance a 
subterraneous course below the surface. Soon after, 
however, we found ourselves again on its banks, and 
early on the afternoon of the first day emerged from the 
ravine which I have attempted to describe, and ap- 
proached the great opening, wherein the Indian village 
of Tlacolula lies surrounded by its orange groves and 
pretty cultivated enclosures. 

This was by far the most important Indian village we 
had seen, though perhaps not the largest, and w 7 e found 
that the population was partly engaged in the manufacture 
of the cotton cloth which serves as a reboso, or veil for 
the upper part of the person, of the common people 
throughout Mexico. They are woven in a rudely con- 
structed loom. 

We here passed a long evening, bathing in the river, 
examining whatever was curious — among which we 
may mention a pretty crystal cascade directly opposite 
our quarters in one of the palmetto-thatched huts of the 
village — and in arguing whether it was lawful or unlaw- 
ful to shoot a monkey. Several of these animals, of the 
long-tailed yellow and black species, had been descried 
in the ravine at their avocations, much to our amuse- 
ment. Pourtales, however, who remembered the de- 
lights of strange meats — such as skunk, racoon, and 
prairie dogs on the great prairies, and whose philosophy 
was anything but Pythagorean or Braminical, had been 
in a perfect fever for a taste of the long- armed gentry, 
and I believed had actually fired a shot or two, which 
the objects of his aim had contrived to dodge. M'Euen 
and myself took him to task, for to us it appeared that 



TLACOLULA. 



55 



he was guilty of having meditated the most culpable 
homicide. For my part they looked to me far too much 
like distant family connections, to allow me for an instant 
to harbour the wish of taking away their lives. 

The church of Tlacolula, a dingy stone structure, stands 
prominently in the middle of the valley. 

These Indian villages, though they have ostensibly the 
power of self-government in matters relating to them- 
selves, as the alcades and other petty functionaries are 
appointed from the inhabitants, are in fact governed by 
the priest, who here, as elsewhere, is of the mixed race ; 
and a fiery, fagot-bearing, heretic-hating, determined, 
beetle-browed clerk, we found the Cura of Tlacolula to 
be. I thought him very much inclined to act the in- 
quisitor with us, till he discovered that we were ex- 
tremely inoffensive and civilly inclined, and able to fur- 
nish him with a bonus of percussion caps, which he 
greedily coveted and obtained, after which he gave us 
his blessing, and left us to pass the night in peace.* 

So far we had come without any great degree of 
trouble, or any more serious contretems than such as 
we might well have expected. Our preconceived good 
opinion of Espindola had never been shaken for an in- 
stant ; and our respect for and our confidence in him 
grew day by day. His mules, though of various tempers, 
were strong and good, and did their work well. He 
generally led the youngest and giddiest by the lasso, and 
the rest followed in their order. The art of packing 
a mule is quite a science ; and it was singular to see, 
how, after the first day's trial — when the trial was made, 
which of the heterogeneous and multiform objects com- 
posing our baggage would ride best in company, or were 

* There exists more than one mode of reaching the village of Tlaco- 
lula from Tampico ; and I am inclined to think a yet shorter than that 
described, viz., by Los Huevas, the village of Tantayancaand La Pesca, 
which, by the calculation of the author of " Notes on Mexico," brings 
you here in seven days, and after a journey of fifty-three leagues. 

We had been up to this evening also seven days on the road from 
Tampico Alta, and had come, by our arriero's computation, fifty-nine 
leagues. But our object was to go the most picturesque road, and that 
we undoubtedly did. 



56 



TLACOLULA. 



suited to the strength of the individual — how everything 
went by rule and square, and how seldom anything went 
wrong. The Mexican pack saddle would seem in itself 
to be a burden. A considerable variety is shown in the 
leather furniture, which is often embossed and embroi- 
dered in red and yellow, in addition to a name such as 
Bamonos, Abobo, Mejico. These names, however, may 
be said to belong more to the suit of harness than, as 
might be supposed, to the animal wearing it. 

Once packed, and in motion, off the mules marched in 
Indian file ; one pacing under the mountainous load of 
the camp beds, another laden with two portmanteaus, 
a third with carpet bags and canteen, and so forth, while 
the last scampered after his fellows with the odds and 
ends belonging to our travelling kitchen, often to the 
great danger of the pans which dangled from his sides. 

On arrival at our place of repose they were unladen, 
and every set of furniture carefully arranged by itself in 
the most precise and exact order, while the emancipated 
animals made use of the first moment of liberty to in- 
dulge in a hearty shake, or rolls in the dust, followed up 
by that brief sententious bray, by which the mule ex- 
presses his feelings, in contradistinction to the full, round, 
sonorous, and protracted descant of his mother ass. 

Old Bamanos, or " Let-us-be-jogging," was the most 
trusted, the most sapient, and the most morose of the 
train ; and occasionally bestowed a brace of resounding 
kicks upon the hollow sides of Abobo, or another of his 
brethren, when he saw them in possession of a bush or 
pasture of particular succulence. He was the leader of 
the unled, and ordinarily followed his master. 

We were fortunate in finding maize fodder in most 
of our halting places ; but in default of this our provi- 
ders were seldom at loss, but stripping particular trees 
of their nutritious foliage, supplied the necessities of their 
mules with what the thickets furnished. 

As to our two varlets, when you have said of Miguel 
that he w T as a borrachio, you have recorded all the positive 
evil in his character that come within our notice ; as to 
negative faults he had plenty, but what could be expect- 



TLACOLULA. 



ed of such a wild, unshaven, and uncouth being? As to 
Juliano, with his smooth face, and smoother language ; 
arrogance of superior breeding, and superior authority, 
we had long known that his honesty was very suspicious, 
that his valour was more than doubtful and that his gen- 
eral morals were as worn and discoloured, as the faded, 
green leather breeches in which he delighted to swagger 
among the Indians. 

We found that like other fashionable servants he had 
his private gleanings whenever employed by us. One 
thing I must say for him, that if he was lavish of our 
credit and dollars, he was no less so of his own ; for 
what with one thing or another, he had contrived to 
draw from us, by the time we reached Tlacolula, nearly 
the whole of his pay, for the entire tour and the return. 

Here, having more leisure to look about us, we were 
not slow in discovering other dusky shades in his char- 
acter. Having taken into his head that his valour was 
hired as pur body guard, and being moreover jealous of 
the respect and confidence which we bestowed upon 
Don Juan Espindola, he thought proper, all of a sudden, 
to relinquish all care of our baggage. After leading for- 
ward our horses of a morning, ready caparisoned for de- 
parture, without further ado, he girded on his trusty — no, 
rusty blade ; grasped his mighty carbine, clambered on 
his own steed, and awaited the signal of marching. This 
conduct was the more disagreeable, as our skill in the 
Spanish tongue as yet hardly comprised terms of objur- 
gation and menace ; and this the rogue knew. Never- 
theless we gave him a regular " blowing up," which I 
flatter myself w r as comprehensible enough, in spite of 
bad grammar, Gallicisms, and Anglicisms ; though indeed 
I must in fairness state, that, whether in anger or deep- 
seated grief no one could say, he forthwith departed from 
our presence, bought himself a bottle of agua ordient€ y 
and got tipsy. Miguel was too good a comrade not to 
bear him company ; so that on the morning of our depar- 
ture from Tlacolula, they were both found to be so 
far gone, that it was with trouble they could sit in the 
saddle. 



53 



THE CANADA. 



But, however great our annoyance, nothing was able 
to damp the spirit of* enthusiasm with which we found 
ourselves inspired. Soon after leaving the village, the 
huge precipices which towered on both sides, closed in 
upon the stream, and threw the road into deep shadow ; 
and we w T ere not long in discovering, that beautiful as the 
scenery had been, we were to see it on a yet grander scale, 
and clothed with yet greater magnificence. The most 
sublime part of the defile of the Canada is that which ex- 
tends two or three leagues above Tlacolula. A moun- 
tain of very great elevation appears literally cloven in 
twain from the very summit to the foundation ; display- 
ing immense perpendicular sheets of white rock, the in- 
numerable lamina of which are twisted and gnarled like 
the roots of a tree. A wilderness of the richest tropical 
vegetation clothes the partial slopes, and chokes up the 
depths of the defile. The gorge varies from five hun- 
dred to one hundred feet in breadth. 

The continuation of the road where the great defile 
terminates, presents fine, but in general more open 
scenery. The mule path for several leagues follows a 
tortuous track, now on the sides of the steep acclivities, 
and then to and fro on the side of the river, which has 
now decreased greatly in size, till it leads you insensi- 
bly to the foot of the Monte Penulco. 

The road at this season was rendered lively by the 
strings of mules, laden with the produce of the table 
land, which take advantage of the dry season to reach 
the coast by the Canada, though I cannot say that they 
add to the safety of the narrow pathway, as it is not al- 
ways easy to pass without running a certain degree of 
risk. In the wet season, of course the road in the defile 
is impracticable, and the cuchillo, or ridge of the moun- 
tain, is then followed. 

Early in the afternoon we now began to descry 
patches of pine forest, and the river forking, we followed 
the branch to the right, till we reached the foot of the 
broad and well-constructed road, which, leaving the de- 
files, leads the traveller up the precipitous sides of the 
mountain. A series of turns and zigzags, conducted upon 



THE MONTE PENULCO 



59 



the narrow edge of ridges which are occasionally bound- 
ed by abrupt and horrible declivities, sweeping many 
hundred feet downward to the edge of the river, must 
then be surmounted. Here accidents are of frequent 
occurrence ; and our caution was increased by the sight 
of a dying mule which had just before fallen from a 
higher turn of the road to a lower. 

As we continued to climb for nearly two hours, grad- 
ually rising one hundred feet after another, we became 
conscious of a change both in the atmosphere and in 
the surrounding vegetation. Our view began to expand, 
and to range over a long chain of gracefully moulded 
mountains, hemming in the valley of the Canada towards 
its source ; and when, at length, we emerged upon the 
summit among scattered groups of evergreen oaks and 
other forest trees, rising from a fresh greensward, we 
were conscious that we had quitted the tierras calientes, 
and had gained the level tierras templadas. 



LETTER IV. 

It is an advantage to have a mind disposed to enjoy- 
ment, and to feel yourself participating in that temper, 
which extracts pleasing sensations out of every situation. 
I may without arrogance say, in different degrees, per- 
haps, and from very different impulses, such was the char- 
acter of each individual of the trio whose footsteps you 
have good-humouredly, I doubt not, followed thus far. 

We had all, while in the tierras mlientes, been struck 
with the peculiar beauties of that region and its wonder- 
ful productions ; and revelled, with all due temperance 
I hope, in the many sources of rational enjoyment there 
laid before us ; philosophically enduring, if not scorning 
those annoyances, to which the climate, country, and 
the rude state of society, unavoidably exposed the trav- 
eller. 



60 



THE MONTE PENULCO 



The suffocating heat, the insect plagues, the unwonted 
food — what in fact had they been to us, compared to the 
sum of our enjoyments? We almost felt regret, while 
mounting the lofty mountain ladder which was to raise 
us to another and more temperate zone, that we were 
turning our backs upon such unparalleled beauty. 

Nevertheless, if I would signalize one evening and one 
scene, during our ramble in New Spain, which touched 
our hearts more than another, I should name the Monte 
Penulco and the setting sun which we there beheld. 

A desolate-looking stone building, in the vicinity of a 
poor rancho, divided by party walls into a number of 
comfortless lodgings, here furnished us with accommo- 
dation ; and after seeing that all our retinue had followed 
us without accident, we left our horses to their repose, 
and sallied forth for a stroll. 

The swelling crest of the Monte Penulco is said to 
have been at the time of the Spanish conquest, the site 
of a large town containing many thousand inhabitants. 
You look now in vain for the traces, either in the rem- 
nants of buildings, or inequalities of surface. A solitary 
stone ruin, of considerable strength, standing in the mid- 
dle of the wide pastures, is the only vestige of old times ; 
and that, I have no doubt, like many ruins in this part of 
the country, which are shown as Indian antiquities, is 
of Spanish origin. It may either have been a chapel 
erected for the edification of the new converts, or a fort 
constructed to overawe the Indian inhabitants. 

In other respects, nature has reclaimed her own, and 
resumed her quiet sway over the Monte Penulco and its 
brethren, which exhibit throughout all their varied undu- 
lations of surface, an unbroken carpet of delicious ver- 
dure nurtured by the moist mists of the mountains, and 
beds of gentle flowers, fanned by the pure and elastic air 
of an eternal spring. 

How sweet we felt the repose of that long still eve- 
ning upon those green Alpine pastures ! Well might we, 
as we lay at ease upon the fresh sod, and watched the sun 
sink among the mountains girdling the horizon, w hile his 



THE MONTE PENULCO. 



61 



slanting beams glistened upon the pretty white Oenothera 
which spotted the turf, congratulate each other upon our 
escape from the persecutions of garapatoes and their in- 
sect allies. 

The view on all sides was fine, but chiefly so towards 
the deep defiles of the Canada at our feet. The Monte 
Penulco occupies the angle between the forks. Across 
the opening which marked the great defile above Tlaco- 
lula, an even line of blue, melting into the mist of the ut- 
most visible horizon, marked the open country of the 
Huastec, through which we had passed many days previ- 
ous. Many little solitary Indian huts, and patches of 
sugarcane, and numerous herds of cattle, were scattered 
over the precipitous slopes far and wide, and altogether, 
we agreed, that nowhere in America had we seen moun- 
tain scenery whose general features and colouring bore 
so great a resemblance to the lower green Alps of Swit- 
zerland, with their wide pastures, transparent atmo- 
sphere and glistening chalets. 

The Monte Penulco lies probably at the height of be- 
tween four and five thousand feet above the gulf. The 
limit at which the sugarcane and banana come to per- 
fection, has been given as the boundary between tierras 
calientes and tierras templadas ; but I am doubtful 
whether that is a just criterion, as so much depends up- 
on the geological formation of a locality, and its position 
with regard to the surrounding country, and in some 
parts of Mexico sugar is cultivated at a much greater 
height than that which otherwise would exhibit the phe- 
nomena of the tierras templadas. 

We supped in our den, during the brief twilight of the 
tropics, and welcomed the temperate zone of New Spain 
in a horn of its own vintage, which I here introduce to 
your notice under the name of pulque — a liquor drawn 
from the great Mexican aloe, or maguey. 

I forgot to mention that, on arrival here, we yielded 
to the desire of Espindola, that we should dispense with 
his services for the night and following morning, and al- 

F 



62 



THE MONTE PENULCO. 



low him to go forward to his home in the town of Za- 
cualtipan, between three and four leagues distant, to pre- 
pare his wife for the reception of our party : and I have 
now further to narrate the defection of our scapegrace 
Juliano, who, after going about his work in the evening 
like a man in a maze, was reported early the next morn- 
ing by his comrade to be dead — or dying — or drunk ; 
at all events incapable, or unwilling to move another 
step. We therefore visited him, and inquired into the 
particulars of his case. We examined his tongue— 
well-coloured and healthy ; felt his pulse — free and regu- 
lar; and punched him affectionately in the stomach, that 
being, according to the mute indication of the sufferer, 
the main seat of the unknown disease. He bore this 
professional treatment with great meekness. We ascer- 
tained that he had, in conformity to his invariable habits, 
made a very hearty supper : to wit, a dozen and a half 
of tortillas smeared w r ith Chile; a dish of rice; a dish 
of frigoles, forbye an egg or two ; a huge pot of pulque, 
and a couple of yards of sugarcane ; and we had great 
suspicion, from what we learned, that he intended, as soon 
as the coast was clear, to make an equally hearty break- 
fast. But what were we poor, innocent, helpless trav- 
ellers to do ? There he lay under a group of Palma 
Christi, on his arrnas d'agua, or goatskin knee wrappers, 
like a man who has completely iost his hold upon the 
world — made his last testament — left to others the con- 
solations to be derived from the possession of his goods 
and chattels — his battered green velvet pantaloons, and 
short jacket; his mighty sword, and mightier carbine; 
and was only waiting for the priest to give him his 
viaticum. 

It is true, we had all good reasons to believe him 
" playing possum," as the Anglo Americans express it, 
otherwise ^hamming ; indeed, we had proof positive 
showing this to be the case, and that, moreover, he had 
excellent reasons for doing it, and for quitting us here. 
He was deeply in our debt. He was tired of his mas- 
ters, as he found that his villanies, small and great, were 
detected. He knew that from this day forward, the 



ZACUALTIPAN. 



63 



gallant bearing of a warrior which he had assumed was 
no longer to be a sinecure, but that there was a possi- 
bility of his having actually to fight — all urgent reasons 
for breaking his chain. And break it he did — no doubt 
finding his health wonderfully restored, as soon as our 
diminished train disappeared ; and I could almost sym- 
pathize with the laugh which he must have indulged in, 
as he saw the three dons in the distance, reduced to the 
necessity of turning muleteers — the more so, as our 
hyper-charity had left him a bonus for his ill conduct. 

Abobo and his fellows were all mad that morning — 
whether from the intoxicating effects of mountain air, 
or from their feeling that Espindola was absent, and that 
we were in a dilemma, I know not. However you 
might be tempted, you cannot follow Juliano's example 
and go back ; but nolens volens must keep us company 
over one swelling height after another, up and down — but 
always attaining a greater and greater altitude, till after 
about three hours' march through an elevated line of coun- 
try, partly under cultivation, the view suddenly opened to 
the south, and we saw the main chain of the Sierra Madre, 
heaped over the horizon in that direction, the wide 
stretch of varied table land at its feet, and the pretty 
town of Zacualtipan before us. 

It was certainly a pity that Juliano did not keep up 
his courage so far as to advance to Zacualtipan, for he 
would have gloried in the eclat with which our party en- 
tered it ; wheeling round by the great church, and across 
the Plaza, with ringing spurs and jingling arms, at a hard 
trot after our intoxicated mules, which, led by old Abobo, 
as soon as they recollected the locality and the near 
proximity of their own stable, set off at a canter to the 
great risk of the various piles of which their lading was 
composed. Great was the astonishment of the peaceful 
inhabitants ; and even a sleepy corps de garde of half-clad 
soldiery, lounging under the piazza of the municipal 
palace in the square, were evidently taken by sur- 
prise. However, they had no time to collect their 
forces ; for following hard in the wake of our baggage, 
we descended a narrow street, on the opposite side of 



64 



ZACUALTIPAN. 



the space, and rushed pellmell into the hospitable court- 
yard, much to the delight of our honest arriero, who, 
with his young wife and two children, was upon the look- 
out for us. He gave as a hearty welcome to his home, 
where, both for his sake and our own, we had deter- 
mined to take an entire day's rest. 

A salvo of hearty kicks was meantime fired by old 
Bamanos upon every set of ribs and haunches within 
reach, either as a salutary correction for their general 
want of discipline, or a publication of his resumption of 
authority as " lord of the walk" now that they were at 
home. 

Zacualtipan was the largest town we had yet seen 
in Mexico, though far overrated, it being reported to con- 
tain ten thousand inhabitants. ItS situation, at the broken 
ground towards the head of a vast rocky ravine of great 
depth, descending for several leagues towards the valley 
of Rio Oquilcalco, is very picturesque. Many of the 
houses are constructed of limestone, with balconies and 
galleries somewhat in the Spanish taste. The principal 
church is more curious in parts, than beautiful in propor- 
tion : and it is singular to trace here and there many of 
the Moorish and Arabesque details which are to be found 
in the splendid churches of the mother country, trans- 
planted hither on the soil of the New World. The 
church is furnished with its quota of bells, priests, and 
tinsel ; as we had an opportunity of discovering an hour 
after our arrival, when a large, but dirty and tawdry 
funeral procession, with hymns and crucifix, perambu- 
lated most of the narrow streets of the place, of w T hich 
the deceased seemed to have been a wealthy inhabitant. 
There is little or no trade or manufacture here, as far as 
we could learn. 

The house of our arriero was comfortably, but simply 
furnished with settees round the walls, and was by far the 
most pleasant lodging we had occupied since our arrival 
in the country ; and though far from wealthy, it was 
easy to see that the master was respected by his 
townsmen. He devoted the following morning to a 
ramble with us in the adjacent country, in which he 



ZACUALTIPAN. 65 

pointed out various remnants of old times. We re- 
marked the site of more than one Indian town, now only 
indicated by swelling heaps of rubbish or sunken wells, 
and some singularly shaped rocks, which tradition points 
out as objects of idolatrous worship in ancient times. 

What we were most eager to visit, were certain In- 
dian temples, of w 7 hich we had heard much, and we 
were accordingly conducted to a massive ruined church 
of moderate size, situated a little below Zacualtipan, just 
at the commencement of the great defile. Its erection 
is referred to times prior to the conquest, but I have no 
hesitation in saying, falsely so, like others which we in- 
spected in this valley, in continuing our route. It is 
strongly built of hewn stone, cemented by lime, and 
adorned with a species of carved frieze, the very form 
and drawing of which convinced me that that at least 
was of Spanish workmanship. And a little further in- 
spection and acquaintance with the undoubted erections 
of the Aztec and Toltec nations, certified me that the 
w 7 hole structure was of the same origin, though probably 
built upon the site of a temple or teocallis of the abo- 
rigines. In the course of the evening, we inspected an- 
other of similar form and character, strikingly situated on 
a knoll below the elevated village of San Bernardo, two 
leagues below Zacualtipan, and overlooking the great 
defile ; and to this the same observation applies. 

I had an awkward kind of adventure just before our 
departure from the town. While all unarmed, peace- 
ably sketching alone, in a secluded spot in the vicinity of 
the church, I was attacked at disadvantage by a savage 
patriot, either mad or drunk, or both, who from the cir- 
cumstance of my having been seen more than once in 
that precise position, in the purlieus of his solitary dwell- 
ing, with paper and pencil, was pleased to consider me as 
a spy, and accordingly followed and accosted me with 
his naked sabre at my throat. That the fellow was ca- 
pable of doing me some grievous bodily injury, all for the 
love of Mejico y libcrdad, if not for plunder, in spite of 
my honest face and intentions, I am convinced ; and that 
I felt very foolish, at being thus taken unaware, without 

f2 



66 



SAN BERNARDO. 



the means of self-defence, you will believe. As it was, I 
had to put on all my address, and more bold effrontery 
than I generally affect, to decoy him to accompany me 
towards a more public thoroughfare, where he was 
pleased to leave me ; and to tell the truth, I was pleased 
to leave him. This was the second warning I had had, 
what kind of trouble I was likely to get into by doing 
that which in this land even honest people could not 
comprehend, besides throwing myself in the way of 
danger from the vicious ; and as I could not resolve to 
give up my pursuits, I, from this time henceforward, 
never stirred abroad without being well armed. 

In the vicinity of San Bernardo, we met with the first 
regular plantations of the Agave Americana, or maguey, 
which I have alluded to as the source from which the 
present inhabitants of the table land of New Spain, as 
well as the Aztec aborigines, draw their ordinary bev- 
erage. It is a noble plant, and I will not forget some 
future day to give you a more detailed account of its 
appearance, culture, and uses. 

The ninth of March is noted on my memoranda as 
having afforded us a singularly amusing day's travel. 

The whole tract of country over which it lay was 
perfectly distinct in its features from any we had yet 
seen. The swelling forms, thick rank luxuriance of the 
lower country, and the sweet pastures and evergreen 
oaks of the first and lower steps of the tierras templadas, 
had alike disappeared ; and as we held our course over 
the elevated hills west of the great defile, we saw around 
us tracts of most astonishing extent, partly level table 
land, and partly hill country, with rocky and precipitous 
sides, and furrowed with barrancas a&d ravines of as- 
tounding depth. The whole landscape, up to the foot of 
the distant Sierra Madre, appeared garbed in the most 
uninviting russet hue— the scanty grass covering the 
plain being now of a uniform brown, and in perfect har- 
mony with the burnt, arid soil, or bare rock. Fertile 
spots there were, but they were hidden in the deep valleys. 
The scene was not lovely, but it was sublime. Its details 



RIO OQUILCALCO. 



67 



were highly curious. This region, barren as it was, had 
its vegetable as well as its geological wonders, and they 
were such as to strike us with astonishment. The whole 
of the stony surface of the mountains on both sides of the 
valley of the Rio Oquilcalco, into which we descended, 
is covered with a profusion of maguey, mimosa, cactus, 
and gigantic nopal or prickly pear, many of the segments 
of whose curious lobe-formed growth were from three to 
four feet in circumference, and the oldest near the ground, 
which served for stem, as many feet in girth, rising one 
above another, till they formed a curious but ungraceful 
tree of fifteen or eighteen feet in height. 

Among the cacti, of which I counted eight distinct 
species, from the little prickly ball no larger than a wall- 
nut, to the great white multangular column which rose 
gracefully in a single shaft, to the height of fifteen feet, 
two of the larger species might also arrogate the name of 
trees, and were extremely curious in appearance. 

A rough and tortuous track led us into the arid and 
stony bed of the Rio Oquilcalco, where, sending the 
mules forward, we made a diversion to the left, to visit 
another so-called Indian temple, of much the same char- 
acter as those I have already mentioned. A ragged 
passage of a mountain four leagues across, exhibiting the 
same phenomena, brought us to our midday halting 
place, at the pretty Hacienda Guadaloupe, situated in 
the middle of shady trees, and smiling fields of mai£e, 
sugarcane, beans, and so forth, on a clear mountain 
stream called Rio Grande, which in the rainy season 
forms a considerable river. The system of irrigation 
carried on in this vale is productive of great fertility, and 
many of the fruits and productions of the ticrras cali- 
entes are brought to perfection. After an hour's halt, 
we began the long and rocky ascent of the broad moun- 
tain of San Ammonica, by which you finally attain the 
level of the expanse of table land which forms the 
pedestal of the Sierra Madre. Near the summit, the 
traveller passes the crater of an extinguished volcano, 
having long perceived, throughout the whole district, the 



68 



THE HACIENDA ZOQUITAL/ 



marks of volcanic eruption, and after a difficult climb of 
the extreme and precipitous ridge, gains the level of the 
plain above mentioned. Though partly under careful 
cultivation, its surface also bears many signs of the vol- 
canic origin of the country, in the beds of scoria, the 
deep and perpendicular rifts and barrancas which mark 
the path of the earthquake, or the combined effects of 
alternate heat and torrents, and the fearful-looking pits, 
half full of black water, which are dispersed over it. 
There was much to remind me of the country about 
Civita Castellana. 

The day came to an end by our arrival at the great 
Hacienda Zoquital, where we took possession of one of 
a great range of unfurnished rooms, which, according to 
the custom of the country, are let at a fixed price for the 
occupation of travellers, while stabling is furnished for 
their horses and mules. It is seldom that these night 
quarters are furnished with windows. 

This was one of the most considerable haciendas we 
had seen ; and in truth, its massive walls might have al- 
most stood a siege, and maintained a considerable gar- 
rison within their circuit. 

Many parties of arrieros were here passing to and 
from the capital. The attention of all seemed to be a 
little excited by the fact, that a troop of banditti had been 
plundering a party that very day on the road between 
the Hacienda and Real del Monte ; and it was quite amu- 
sing to see the determination with which loading and pri- 
ming were carried on the next morning at daybreak in 
our party in particular, as we were destined to be the 
first to advance in the direction of the supposed danger. 
What with guns, horse pistols, and pocket pistols, we 
calculated the three dons could fire ten shots without 
reloading for their own share, which w r as not so much 
amiss, supposing every shot told. We could not count 
upon Miguel's blunderbuss, which was quite as likely to 
hit one of the party as an enemy. As to Espindola, he 
was perfectly unarmed, and made no secret of his Qua- 
ker principles and steady determination not to fight ; as 
he said very coolly, " Why should I, even if I had any- 



REGLA. 



69 



thing to lose, for if I defended myself, and even beat off 
or killed my assailants, I am known to every robber in 
the country, and I should be stabbed secretly* if not shot 
openly ! It is different with Igs signares estrangeros, if 
they choose to run the chance ; but los signores ladrones 
Mejicanos seldom attack when they are not sure to over- 
power." 

During the morning's ride over the wide plains, in the 
bright and cloudless sunshine towards Real del Monte, 
we were led to reconsider our plans for the day, on find- 
ing that, as we were desirous of seeing the hacienda 
and barranca of Regla, we might attain that object in 
the course of the day, by going a few leagues out of the 
direct road to the silver mines, without falling short of 
our arrangement to arrive that night at Real del Monte. 
Accordingly we resolved to leave the mules to their fate : 
and, sending them forward on the main road, under the 
conduct of Miguel, and a little valet of Espindola's, our 
small party turned aside, under the escort of the latter. 
We soon reached the town of Puebla Grande de Mittan, 
the situation of which, mure to the east, had long been 
indicated by the huge church which rises over its mot- 
ley collection of habitations. We allowed ourselves no 
breathing time here, further than a hasty glance at the 
church and a draught of pulque required ; but continued 
our route over an elevated district of singular sterility, 
commanding, however, noble views of the surrounding 
chains. After two hours' ride, w T e descended into a 
valley, with occasional haciendas scattered over its sur- 
face, and shortly after found ourselves ai the brink of the 
Barranca of Regla. A well-constructed road, upon 
which we had been pacing for some time, conducted us 
by a rapid descent into the recesses of this celebrated 
ravine, when we suddenly came in sight of the immense 
pile of the hacienda and its Moorish church tower over- 
topped by the lofty colonnades of columnas basalt which 
form the sides of the barranca. In the abundant supply 
of water which rushes down it, you find the reason which 
has led to the choice of this singular locality for the 
erection of those colossal works for the smelting and 



70 



REGLA. 



amalgamation of the silver ores, which the enterprise 
and unlimited means of a former Count of Regla have 
constructed within this horrible gulf, at the cost of nine 
millions of dollars. At the present time, this property, 
together with an almost boundless extent of country on 
the neighbouring cordillera and in the plain, including the 
silver mines of Real del Monte, has been, since 1824, 
rented in perpetuity of the noble possessor, by a British 
mining company, for the paltry sum of sixteen thousand 
dollars per annum. 

We were hospitably received and entertained for some 
hours by Mr. M., the company's superintendent at the 
hacienda; and through his kindness were furnished with 
every facility for a detailed inspection of the various 
works, which of course have been brought to far greater 
perfection by the present proprietors. Not the least re- 
markable feature of these immense works, are the pon- 
derous bulwarks of hewn stone, built to protect the works 
from the impetuous torrents of debris brought down by 
the river in the rainy season. Wc did not of course fail 
to ascend the barranca to the celebrated cascade, which 
you reach by tracing the course of the stream between 
two walls of basaltic columns, upward of a hundred feet 
in height. It is to be found at some distance above the 
hacienda, where a screen of the same singular geological 
structure, composed of perpendicular columns of twenty- 
five or thirty feet in elevation, stretches across the ravine, 
and bars the course of the river which pours over it from 
the upper part of the barranca ; disjointed sections of 
rock half covered with moss, and shaded by trees, lie at 
the foot of either precipice. In the rainy season, the 
whole scene must be very grand. The colour and texture 
of the basalt differ in some respects from any I have 
seen in Europe, if I except that on Ben More, in the 
north of Ireland. The form of the columns, however, is 
very complete, and in most cases hexagonal or pentag- 
onal. The barranca of Regla lies about seven thou- 
sand feet above the gulf. 

The kindness of our entertainer made us prolong our 



REAL DEL MONTE. 



71 



stay far longer than prudence should have permitted, the 
more so, as a thunder storm was evidently in prepara- 
tion. We had four leagues of road before us ; and the 
latter part of this, after entering the mountains, was ac- 
knowledged to be extremely perilous for a nocturnal 
ride. A melancholy proof had been given only a few 
evenings before, when one of the gentlemen connected 
with the mines, descending from Real del Monte, with 
Mr. M., was precipitated in the darkness into a profound 
barranca, and was then lying at the point of death. 

But whether in the shape of thunder storm, darkness, 
barranca, or banditti, we seemed to have made up our 
minds to dare the danger, and to sleep at an elevation of 
two thousand feet higher up the country. In fine, just as 
the thunder began to echo among the mountains of the 
Rio del Chico, we might be seen issuing from the deep 
ravine, and urging our horses across the plain in the di- 
rection of the nearest chain, like men who knew that no 
time was to be lost. 

Evening fell in early, under the lugubrious and prema- 
ture shade cast over the brown plain and blue mountains 
by the thunder clouds ; and by the time we reached a 
small village at the foot of the latter, night had fairly set 
in. The storm, however, seemed to spread itself more to 
the northward, as the glare of lightning became less fre- 
quent ; and it was now that such a darkness fell upon 
us as baffles all description. I had been riding forty 
yards in advance as a kind of scout, feeling the way. but 
now I was compelled to come to a dead stop, and give 
up the task of leader to Espindola. A momentary flash 
from time to time showed us that we were at the entrance 
of a mountain defile overhung with rocks, and at the 
brink of a dashing torrent, rolling down a barranca to 
the left ; but in our progress forward, our ears alone 
gave token of the character of the locality. The danger 
I have no scruple in saying was imminent, and increased 
in a terrific degree, as we crawled forward step by step, 
at the edge of a gulf, which increased momentarily in 
depth, upon a road of no great breadth, undefended on 
the side of the precipice, and conducted in several in- 



72 



REAL DEL MONTE. 



stances over the abyss, by bridges equally without par- 
apet. 

We kept, as well as the ear and touch would permit, 
one exactly behind the other, momentarily passing the 
word to halt, or advance, rapidly from one to another. 
Now and then we came to a full halt, from the utter 
doubt whether the next step would not be over the pre- 
cipice. The passage of each bridge in turn, was a mo- 
ment of great interest, yet through God's mercy, we met 
with no accident, but gradually ascended, till the fresh- 
ening air and the expansion of the valley, as we might 
see by an occasional flash, indicated our approach to the 
town. In fine, there we arrived, and after some little 
search, found our valets, and a room prepared for our 
reception in a meson or inn. 

The mules and their cargoes had fortunately escaped 
pillage ; some thought, from the fact that there w r ere no 
robbers to attack them, and others, from the intimidation 
produced by the formidable and suspicious appearance 
of the leather case of my gun, which, in its empty state, 
was always carried in advance upon the leading mule, 
in the hands of little Raphael. Pointed forward between 
the ears of the animal, it certainly might pass for a bow 
gun of extraordinary construction. 

We made a halt of two days at Real del Monte, which 
we found to be a singularly picturesque town, containing, 
among others, one large decorated church, and many 
substantial buildings. It is surrounded by forests of oak 
and pine, and mountain slopes carpeted by white, red, 
and yellow flowering shrubs. It is situated at the height 
of upward of nine thousand feet above the sea. We 
found our time fully taken up by the overground and un- 
derground excursions which we were enabled to make 
with much interest to ourselves, through the polite at- 
tention of the gentlemen connected with the mining com- 
pany. Among the former I distinguished a climb to the 
summit of a singular rock rising, at the distance of some 
miles, about one thousand feet higher than the town, and 
commanding a view of extraordinary interest and extent 



REAL DtL MONTE. 



73 



<©n both sides of the great chain in which the mines are 
situated, This you will easily conceive, when I enu- 
merate among the points visible withki the vast horizon, 
the plains and lakes of the great valley of Mexico, about 
twenty leagues distant; the volcanoes of Mexico and 
Puebla on one hand, and the vale of Regla, and evem 
the great cone of Orizava itself, on the other. 

I feel that my description of the mines must of neces- 
sity be very brief and insufficient, and that for many de- 
tails you must be referred to the writings of more sober 
and laborious writers. ' 

A portion of the first day was devoted to a survey of 
the superficial operations and works ; and on the morn- 
ing of the second, M'Euen and myself spent six hours 
under ground, while Pourtales, eschewing fatigue, luxu- 
riated in his grass hammock, smoked five dozen cigaritas, 
*and sipped pulque. 

A brief account you have, however, the right to de- 
mand. 

The great vein of silver ore called the Biscaina, lying 
in the porphyric rock of this chain, was one of the earli- 
est and most productive of those opened by the Span* 
iards. It was worked by them with great advantage 
nearly two hundred years, but circumstances at the be- 
ginning of the last century gave rise to its temporary 
abandonment. It was, however, reopened, and other 
shafts commenced towards the close of the same centu- 
ry by the Count of Regla, who, in the excavation of an 
adit, or subterraneous canal, to carry off the waters from 
the mines, is said to have realized eleven millions of dol- 
lars ; such being the richness of ore with which he acci- 
dentally came in contact. Subsequently difficulties have 
-constrained his descendant to cede his right, as before 
mentioned ; and the Real del Monte Company, after the 
complete repair of the old works, and the construction of 
new — the cost and labour of which have been enormous 
— has at length so far attained its object, that at present 
the actual proceeds of the mines exceed the expenditure, 
which here and at Regla is estimated at thirty thousand 

o 



74 



REAL DEL MONTE. 



dollars monthly. The energy and skill of our country* 
men in the construction of new shafts, and the substitu- 
tion of steam for animal power — the great roads con- 
structed to Regla and to Vera Cruz, whence all their 
heavy machinery has been transported on its arrival from 
England ; and the order and wisdom evident in all the 
operations, are not unworthy of the British name. 

At the same time, there is something about mining 
speculations in any country, and more than all in a coun- 
try like New Spain, where justice and reason have so 
little sway, which would make me advise any friend of 
mine to take a slower but surer mode of seeking his 
fortune. 

In consequence of the number of artificers and miners 
transported hither, an English colony has sprung up in 
Real del Monte, and it was moving for me to see the 
flaxen hair and blue eyes, and hear the prattle of many 
English children, gambolling in close vicinity to the swar- 
thy offspring of the mixed races of the country. 

From the eminence to the south of Real del Monte, an 
excellent bird's eye view is attained of the general dispo- 
sition of the works. 

The great vein runs through this elevated mountain 
mass, nearly in a direction of east and west underlying 
south, with a variation of 24 degrees. All the works 
are to the south of the town, and are seen disposed up 
the slope of the main ridge. 

The lowest shaft is the Dolores, 330 varas* deep, 
then follow San Cyetano, 347 varas ; Santa Teresa, 
335; Terrero, 370; Guadaloupe, 210. Santa Agatha 
and San Francisco are the highest shafts in the series. 
The great adit, to the level of which the water is brought 
up by powerful steam engines from the bottom of the 
mines, lies 242 varas below the mouth of the Terrero 
shaft. It is throughout 2i varas high, and li wide, and 
runs for two miles and a half with a very gentle fall, to 
its opening in the vale of Moran below. Hitherto, steam 
power has only been applied to the purpose here stated, 

* Vara, or Mexican yard, is two feet nine inches English. 



REAL DEL MONTE. 



75 



the ore and rubbish being raised to the surface by horse 
power applied to a windlass. 

But now, if you choose, you may accompany us to the 
mouth of the Dolores shaft, when, having garbed in 
miners' dresses, with heads well defended with a kind of 
felt helmet, we began our descent by ladders, accompa- 
nied by two of the English captains or overseers, and 
went down, down, down into the bowels of the earth. 
We passed the mouth of the adit ; and, reaching the bot- 
tom of the mine, in our progress from one shaft to an- 
other, visited every part of the " workings." To gain 
and examine some of these required a certain degree of 
strength and resolution, from the defective and danger- 
ous means of descent and exit. They were various in 
appearance, sometimes a shapeless excavation, and at 
other times wrought into the form of a gallery, according 
as the rock had been rich or poor in the ore, which is 
found in a quartz matrix, imbodied in the porphyry rock, 
of which the whole chain consists. 

The system of mining struck me as peculiar. The 
common miners are, for the most part, of the Indian race. 
A few of them band together, to work in company, and 
take their equal shares of the proceeds. They are paid 
four rials a day by the company, and take, as their further 
perquisite, one eighth of the ore extracted. 

On issuing from the mouth of the mine, the confede- 
rates themselves divide the lumps of ore, rich and poor, 
into eight heaps in the presence of one of the overseers, 
and that overseer determines which of the eight shall be 
given up to them. There are subterranean offices where 
the tools and candles are kept, and regularly served out 
and reclaimed, by an officer charged with that particular 
duty. Blasting and other operations are carried on as in 
other mines. 

There are upon an average about three hundred In- 
dians constantly thus engaged in the different parts of the 
mine ; and the scenes presented in those gloomy caves, 
where they work by the red light of their tapers, with 
scarcely any covering, are far beyond my describing. 



7© 



REAL DEL MONTE; 



The ascent of the great shaft of the Terreros, from the 
depth of nearly a thousand feet below the surface, by 
means of a series of perpendicular ladders, thirty-two in 
number, was one of the most fatiguing exploits which I 
ever undertook. We were, nevertheless, highly grati- 
fied by our adventure. It may yet be mentioned that 
the ore is transported to Regla, where it goes through 
the necessary processes for being converted into bullion,, 
after which it is carried to the city of Mexico, and coined 
into dollars at the government mint. In this form it £$ 
exported* 

The lust for gold which possessed the souls of the con- 
querors, condemned the aborigines of these central por- 
tions of America, to a system of oppression and tyranny 
in times past, which is almost inconceivable. As there 
was no personal danger to which the quest after the 
precious metals might expose the Spaniard that he would 
not dare ; so there was no depth of cruelty to which he 
would not descend to further his debasing passion. Of 
this the traditions of the Indians preserve many striking 
illustrations* 

I give you one anecdote — whether told before or not 7 
I do not know — which was related to me, with others of 
the kind, in the mining district where such tales abound. 

In an Indian village, farther to the north, say the In- 
dians, there lived in the old Spanish times a padre : a 
man of simple and retired habits, who laboured to con- 
vert and maintain the inhabitants in the Catholic faith. 

He was beloved by the simple tribe among whom he 
was domesticated, and they did not fail to prove their 
good will by frequent presents of such trifles as they 
found were agreeable to him. They say that he was a 
great writer ; and occasionally received from the Indians 
of his parish a small quantity of finely coloured dust ? 
which he made use of to dry his sermons and letters. 
Knowing how much the padre loved writing, they sel- 
dom returned from the mountains without bringing him 
some. It happened that once upon a time, he had occa- 
sion to write to a friend of his* living in the capital, who 



REAL DEL MONTE. 



77 



was a jeweller, and did not fail to use his sand box. In 
returning an answer, his knowing friend, to his great sur- 
prise, bantered him with his great riches, seeing that he 
dried the very ink on his paper with gold dust ! This 
opened the simple padre's eyes. He sent for his Indian 
friends, and without divulging his newly acquired know- 
ledge, begged them to get him more of the fine bright 
sand. They, nothing doubting, did so. The demon of 
avarice began to whisper into the old man's ear, and 
warm the blood of his heart. He begged for more, and 
received it — and then more — till they had furnished him 
with several pounds weight. All entreaty that they would 
show him the locality where this bright dust was gathered, 
was resisted with calmness and steadiness for a long time. 
Alternate cajoling and menace were employed with 
equally bad success. At length, wearied out, they told 
him that, as they loved him, and saw he was disturbed in 
mind, they would yield to his desire and show him the 
spot, on the condition that he would submit to be led to 
and from the place blindfold. To this he greedily con- 
sented, and was in course of time taken upon their shoul- 
ders and carried, whither he knew not, by many devious 
ways, up and down mountain and barranca, for many 
hours, into the recesses of the cordillera, and there, in a 
cave through which a stream issued from the breast of 
the mountain, they set him down and unbound him. 
They there showed him quantities of the gold dust inter- 
mingled with large lumps of virgin ore, while their spokes- 
man addressed him, saying : " Father, we have brought 
you here at your urgent request, because you so much 
desired it, and because we loved you ; take now what 
you want to carry away with you— let it be as much as 
you can carry, for here you must never hope to come 
again ; you will never persuade us more 1" The padre 
seemingly acquiesced, and after disposing as much of the 
precious metal about his person as he could contrive to 
carry, he submitted to be blindfolded, and was again 
taken in the arms of the Indians to be transported home. 
The tradition goes on to relate how the good cure, upon 
whom the cursed lust of gold had now seized, thought to 

g2 



78 



REAL DEL MONTE. 



outwit his conductors by untying his rosary, and oc<^~ 
sionally dropping a bead on the earth. If he flattered 
himself that any hope existed of his being thus able to 
thread the blind maze through which he passed, and find 
the locality, one may imagine his chagrin, when once 
more arrived and set down at his own door, the first 
sight which met his uncovered eyes was the contented 
face of one of his Indian guides, and an outstretched 
hand, containing in its hollow the greater part of the 
grains of his rosary ; while the guileless tongue of the 
finder expressed his simple joy at having been enabled ta 
restore such a sacred treasure to the discomfited padre. 

Entreaties and threats were now employed in vain. 
Gentle as the Indians were, they were not to be bent. 
Government was apprized of the circumstances, and 
commissioners were sent down to investigate the affair. 
The principal inhabitants were seized, and menace being 
powerless, torture, that last argument of the tyrant^ 
was resorted to — all in vain, not a word could be wrung 
from them ! Many were put to death ; still their brethren 
remained mute ; and the village became deserted under 
the systematic persecution of the oppressors. The most 
careful researches, repeatedly made from time to time 
by adventurers in search of the rich deposite, have all re- 
sulted in disappointment ; and, to this day all that is 
known is, that somewhere in the recesses of those moun- 
tains lies the gold mine of La Navidad. 

The following day, despite the temptation we felt t& 
make various excursions in this interesting neighbour- 
hood, we found ourselves necessitated to resume our 
route to the capital, twenty-three leagues distant. From 
the summit of the sierra, above the town of Real del 
Monte, a steep and rugged descent brings you to the 
level of the great plains which form the central land of 
Mexico ; and over these we now proceeded slowly, in 
a suffocating heat. The first evening we reached a col- 
lection of mud huts and of plantations of nopal and ma- 
guey, disposed around a fine large picturesque church* 
sailed the San Matteo Grande,, 



THE TABLE LAND. 



70 



The second day's ride of seven leagues, over a hilly 
country, increasing in interest at every step, brought us 
over the great dike of San Cristobal, to a village within 
three leagues of Mexico : and, at last, on the morning of 
the 18th, passing by the celebrated collegiate church of 
Guadaloupe, we quitted terra firma by the causeway 
from the north and half an hour afterward entered the 
gate of Mexico. 

I would not here anticipate many observations upon 
the features and phenomena of the district now traversed, 
which may find a more suitable place in a future letter, 
but I cannot avoid observing, how, from the very mo- 
ment of his descent from the mountains, the unusual 
scenes wjiich open themselves before the traveller, pre- 
pare him as it were for that extraordinary and fascina- 
ting picture, which is presented to him on attaining the 
object of his toils. 

The arid, glazed, and silent surface of those intermin- 
able levels, over which the whirling column of sand is 
seen stalking with its stately motion in the midst of a hot 
and stagnant atmosphere ; and upon whose surface he 
continually sees painted the magic and illusory pictures of 
the mirage, with their transparent waters and reflected 
scenes : the huge dark piles of distant mountains, range 
behind range — the strange character of the colouring of 
the landscape far and near — the isolated volcanic cones 
springing up suddenly from the dead flats, and the lofty 
peaks of the great volcanoes far in the distance, gleaming 
in the blue sky with their snowy summits ; the numerous 
churches, each with its dome and towers, mocking the 
deserted waste around, and the wretched groups of mud 
cottages in its vicinity, by its stately architecture ; all 
this — seen through an atmosphere of such transcendent 
purity, that, vast as the expanded landscape seems, no 
just idea of its immensity can be formed from the calcu- 
lations of the eye — imbodies forth, not perhaps the pic- 
turesque, nor perhaps the beautiful, but most assuredly 
the sublime. 

And when approaching the main valley, the villages 



80 



MEXICO. 



thicken around him, with their streets cheered and beau- 
tified, amid the general sterility, by groups of the grace- 
ful Peruvian pepper tree ; and the roads are seen 
crowded by long strings of laden mules, and gay cava- 
liers — and the stupendous works of human design, har- 
monize with those of nature, and prepare him for the 
sight of the most extraordinary scenes in the world, 
whether we regard the works of men, or those of God, 
the artificer of all. And such is the valley and city of 
Mexico. 



LETTER V. 

My last letter closed with the entry of our travel- 
soiled and battered train into the city of Mexico. Such 
epithets may be w T ell applied to us, for we were covered 
with white dust from head to foot ; our faces were ex- 
coriated by the reflection of the sun's rays from the 
heated plains ; and, contrasted with the splendour 
around us, it was impossible not to feel that there was 
something humiliating in our undisguisable shabbiness. 

All things considered, we were not sorry to find our- 
selves speedily in possession of quarters in a species of 
lodging, gaming, eating, and club house, called the Gran 
Sociedad, at the corner of the two great streets, Espiritu 
Santo and del Refugio, and near the centre of the city. 
Here we hired badly furnished apartments, and even- 
tually settled down for a month's residence. 

A few days, and you may imagine us fairly inured to 
our new position. 

Espindola having loyally performed his contract, and 
given up his charge, had clattered out of the gateway 
with his mules and bag of dollars ; and, in high good 
humour with his late employers and himself, had set off 
to seek another engagement among the merchants of the 



MEXICO. 



81 



city, He was of course followed by the valorous little 
Raphael. Our horses, and a fat saddle mule pertaining 
to our stud, were safely housed at a livery stable in the 
vicinity, yclept the 11 Washington where a tall, raw- 
boned Kentuckian, from the backwoods, presided, under 
the dignified and dulcet title of Don Floresco S 

Garcia, a new equery and valet, knowing in the 
streets and resources of the capital, and in the most ap- 
proved ways of emptying the purses of los signores es- 
trangeros, had been hired to be our attendant. 

Against honest Miguel we had no complaint to make ? 
except that he was ill looking, and a borrachio, a title 
which may be applied without offence to many respect- 
able gentlemen in the western hemisphere, as well as to 
a poor Mexican mestizzo. He had now exacted from us 
a precise document, bearing witness to his qualifications 
and character, and mounting his active pad, had turned 
his face towards the coast. 

A fresh skin, the brush, and an English tailor, had done 
something towards making us presentable — in our own 
opinion. Letters of credence and introduction had been 
delivered ; the proper visits made ; and we were now 
at liberty, each to follow his own devices. 

De Pourtales being somewhat indisposed, took it into 

his head to consult Dr. C , to take exceeding care of 

his health, and to remain a great deal within doors, phi- 
losophizing and discussing unknown fruits — the sapote 
prieto, the sapote chico, the sapote borrachio, and the -sa- 
pote bianco — the lucious avocate and mamei, the vaunted 
chirimoya, and the sweet grandita. He took siestas 
both before and after dinner, and he received visits. 
M'Euen also got a most unaccountable fit of the fine 
gentleman; reclined a great deal, and read considera- 
bly ; and, for some days, except on extraordinary occa- 
sions, a lounge on the Alameda, or under the Portales de 
las Flores, was very hard to put in motion. 

As for your humble servant, he was never in better 
health and spirits in his life ; and knowing that the time 
was circumscribed, thought to make the best use of the 
opportunity. Being in a great degree left to chalk out 



82 



MEXICO. 



and follow my own devices, I was abroad early and late. 
Thanks to active habits, the disregard of heat and dust, 
the occasional assistance of my steed Pinto, and a philo- 
sophic contempt of the chances of being lassoed and 
robbed — before half the period of our halt was at an end, 
I had contrived to see a great deal both within and with- 
out the city, and to learn something in spite of our disad- 
vantages — and such there were. So far I am satisfied ; 
at the same time that I have continually to keep in mind 
the latter, and the brevity of our visit, when I recollect 
how many and how interesting are the subjects and ob- 
jects to which I have paid little or no attention. 

But my preface is finished ; and now, that I have ac- 
tually glanced at Mexico, what kind of dish must I cook 
and serve up to you ? Must I give you the literal and 
homely hodgepodge of my own hasty diary ; daily no- 
tices of personal occurrences, personal observations, and 
personal reflections ; with cuttings from the conversa- 
tion and information of those with whom we came in 
contact ? or shall I dress you a dish of historical and sta- 
tistical information, served up with a garnish of apt quo- 
tations from Bullock and Poinsett, or still better, from 
Humboldt — the first, the best, and the only really philo- 
sophic modern traveller who ever visited New Spain, 
whose researches, written thirty years ago, still form the 
text book of every succeeding visiter ! 

Will you have a trifle, half indigestible solid, and half 
evanescent froth, prepared from the shadowy history and 
traditions of the aboriginal people ; shrouded in the mist 
of hieroglyphic, emblematical, and enigmatical devices, 
rendered yet more dim by the misconception, the misin- 
terpretation, and the bigotry of the conquerors ; and still 
more by the stupidity of modern conjurers and expound- 
ers of enigmas: or a sober, well-seasoned regale from the 
tale of the conquest, marvellous, even when those large 
deductions which must be demanded, both by unimagin- 
ative common sense and evident truth, have been made ? 
The choice is an embarrassing one ; and allowing you to 
take full time for decision, I invite you to partake in the 



MEXICO. 



83 



mean time of the pot pourri, which I forthwith serve up 
to you. 

The general position and remarkable features of the 
valley and capital of New Spain, have been too often de- 
scribed not to have become familiar to you. 

You have seen, how, in our ascent from the coast, after 
we had passed through the teeming and fertile uplands 
of the torrid region at the base of the mountains, we had 
mounted from one broad and varied step of this gigan- 
tic mountain mass to another, till we had gained the in- 
terior plateau, where, at the height of 7470 feet, girdled 
by the severed chain of the southern cordillera, the val- 
ley of Mexico, with its lakes, marshes, towns, villages, 
and noble city, opened upon our view. 
% The general figure of the valley is a broken oval of 
about sixty miles in length, by thirty-five in breadth. At 
the present day, even when divested of much that must 
have added to its beauty in the eyes of the great cap- 
tain, and his eager followers, when, descending from the 
mountains in the direction of Vera Cruz, after overcom- 
ing so many difficulties, the view of the ancient city and 
its valley at length burst upon them like a beautiful 
dream — I never saw, and I think I never shall see on 
earth, a scene comparable to it. I often made this re- 
flection, whenever my excursions over the neighbouring 
mountains led me to a point which commanded a general 
view. 

I could not look upon it as did the Spanish invaders, 
as the term of indescribable fatigues, and of dangers, 
known and unknown ; the rich mine which should repay 
them for their nights of alarm and their days of toil, and 
compensate for their seemingly utter abandonment of 
home ; the prize that should satisfy the cravings of the 
most inordinate, and fill their laps with that dear gold for 
which they had ventured all ! I could not enter into the 
ecstasy of the moment, when, after pursuing their blind 
way to this paradise from the plains of Tlascala and 
Cholula, into the recesses of pine-clad and barren rocks, 
higher and higher towards the cold sky, till untrodden 



84 



MEXICO. 



snow-covered peaks arose on either hand, and they 
marched within sight and hearing of the great volcano 
which menaced their path, they gained, in fine, the west- 
ern slope, and saw the green and cultivated fields and 
gardens spreading like a carpet at their feet, round the 
bright and inland sea which then encircled the " Venice 
of the Aztecs P- With what ravishment must they have 
marked the thousand specks which moved upon the wa- 
ters round that broad city spread below, with its white 
roofs, streets, temples, and edifices? what must have 
been their amazement at descrying the long and solid 
causeways dividing the waters ; the innumerable towns 
and villages scattered over the surface of the fertile 
plain ; and the huge circle of mountains which appeared 
to form like a bulwark on every side ? No ! I could not 
realize all they felt — but, amid the desolation of most of 
the ancient fields and gardens ; the aridity and utter 
barrenness of much of the broad plain which now girdles 
the city in every direction ; the diminished extent of the 
lake ; the solitude reigning on its waters ; the destruc- 
tion of the forests on the mountain slopes ; I still felt that 
the round world can hardly match the beauty and inter- 
est of that landscape. Even if man had destroyed, with- 
out in some degree repairing the wrongs he had commit* 
ted to that lovely scene, by the fruits of his industry and 
genius, there is that about the whole scenery which is 
above him, and beyond being affected by him. But let 
us do the stern old conquerors justice. Their minds ap- 
pear to have been imbued with the pervading spirit of 
ihe land which they conquered. All around them was 
strange, and wonderful, and colossal — and their concept 
tions and their labours took the same stamp. Look at 
their works : the moles, aqueducts, churches, roads — 
and the luxurious City of Palaces which has risen from 
the clay-built ruins of Tenochtitlan, at a height above the 
ocean, at which, in the Old World, the monk of St. Ber- 
nard alone drags through a shivering and joyless exist- 
ence ! 

If the general features of the valley of Mexico are 



MEXICO. 



85 



fJtus striking, those presented by the capital are not less 
so. In both its general plan and position, and the so- 
lidity and grandeur of its details, it has impressed me 
with a greater idea of splendour than any city I have 
seen in either hemisphere. 

It covers with its suburbs an area of probably upward 
of three miles square, occupying the central portion of 
that extended oval which was covered by Tenochtitlan 
at the time of the conquest. 

The Plaza Major, or principal square of the new city, 
corresponds with that of the old. The cathedral is 
based on the ruins of the great temple or TeocaUis ; 
the palace of Cortez, the Casa del Estado, rises on the 
very spot on which Montezuma held his court ; and 
many of the principal streets at the present day are 
conducted precisely over the same ground as the more 
noted of the ancient thoroughfares. 

You see the broad and well-paved way sweep through 
the long vista of palaces and public and private edifices, 
from one end of the city to the other ; and the contrast 
between the bright blue sky above, and the screen of 
mountains which form the background far in the dis- 
tance, enveloped in the clear aerial tints of this transpa- 
rent atmosphere, combined with the variety of colour- 
ing and graceful proportions of the architecture, is more 
magnificent and beautiful than I can describe. 

At the time of our visit, the city may be said to have 
exhibited an aspect of extraordinary splendour, from the 
circumstance, that in consequence of the ravages of the 
cholera the preceding year, the inhabitants throughout 
its limits had been compelled by public ordinance to 
paint and clean their houses. 

The general style of building is regular and sym- 
metrical in its outlines. The better houses are nearly of 
the same height ; strongly built of porphyry or porus 
amygdaloid; rising to the third story, with flat roofs, and 
having lofty apartments disposed round an interior quad- 
rangle. At the same time, in the ornaments and details of 
the facades, the style of the elaborate carving, the form of 

H 



86 



MEXICO. 



the windows and balconies, and the colouring, the eye 
recognises an endless variety at every turn. Whether 
the style of embellishment is always in good taste or not, 
it is often very curious and always striking. Most of 
thd facades are painted in distemper, white, orange, 
crimson^ blue, and green or red ; and many are overlaid 
with glazed and stained porcelain tiles of extremely 
beautiful design. 

Such is the number of the churches, convents, and 
public buildings in the central part of the city, that you 
can hardly move without commanding a view of one or 
more edifices of this character, rising above the general 
line, and rearing a pile of stately architecture, with 
painted dome and towers in brilliant relief against the 
sky. 

For the accommodation of a population estimated at 
one hundred and sixty thousand, you enumerate fity-six 
churches within the bounds of the city, in addition to the 
cathedral. The convents and monasteries are thirty- 
eight in number. Some of these are of very great ex- 
tent. That of the San Francisco contains five churches 
within its walls. 

Many of the ecclesiastical edifices are of very great 
size, and all more or less highly wrought and embellished 
interiorly, though the number of those which are distin- 
guished for really good design and good taste is com- 
paratively small. Santa Teresa, the Antigua, the Pro- 
fessa, San Augustin, the Incarnation, and one or two 
others, might be named as having some claim to be ex- 
empt from the general stricture of bad taste, false and 
gaudy ornament, tinsel and glitter, which applies to the 
majority, and which in many becomes absolutely offen- 
sive. Statuary, painting, and carving, are lavished upon 
all, but rarely of a character over mediocrity. In actual 
riches, display of gold, silver, and embroidery, Mexico 
far surpasses every city in Europe ; and the value of pre- 
cious metals which you have sometimes before you, in 
the shape of candelabras, vases, balustrades, shrines, and 
consecrated vessels, is incalculable. 

The signs of the domination of the papal religion are 



MEXICO. 



87 



to be seen everywhere in the streets, where pictures, 
shrines, and processions abound. Few are the palaces, 
on one part or another of the facades of which you do 
not descry a patron saint, " sanctified in stone ;" and 
most of the houses which form the angle of the inter- 
secting streets, are surmounted by little arabesque shrines 
risino- above the level of the azotea or terraced roof. 

o 

I have hastily penned these brief outlines of the in- 
terior aspect of the city, intending, as I may feel tempted, 
to relate the events of the Holy Week which we are 
approaching, and fill you up the outlines here or there, 
and to people it, which you see I have omitted to do. 
Meanwhile, I would lead you without the walls, if a 
breastwork of hardened mud, stretching across the en- 
trance of the causeways, deserves the name. 

Round that nucleus of splendid streets and buildings 
which I have alluded to, in traversing the outskirts of 
the city, you find a large space occupied by buildings of 
a very inferior design, interspersed, however, by large 
and spacious churches. Beyond these, at least on the 
east and north sides, an exterior circle of scattered cabins 
is observable, constructed of the adaubi, or unburnt 
brick, prepared from the clay of the surface, and in- 
habited by the refuse of the populace. They are posted 
on the very limits of that plot of ground which, by an 
elevation of two or three feet over the surface of the 
lake, had been dignified by the erection of this great 
city. The whole of this space was probably thickly 
covered by the ancient capital. 

Over these marshes in the times of Montezuma, cov- 
ered as they then were by w r ater, three causeways led to 
the firm land ; namely, that of Tacuba to the west, Te- 
peaca on the northwest, and Cuoyacan towards the 
south. It was upon the latter that Cortez made his first 
entry into the capital. At that time the majority of the 
streets were intersected by canals ; and the city being 
surrounded by water on every side, the principal com- 
munication with the surrounding districts, and between 



88 



ROUTE TO SAN AUGUSTUS 



the different quarters, was carried on by light canoe& 
These canals are now almost all filled up ; and except 
that of Chalco, there is no considerable canal in the city. 
On the other hand, the causeways are now above double 
their original number. The three ancient cahadas are 
still maintained ; the first being still that of Tacuba, the 
second of Guadaloupe, and the third of San Augustin. 
There are then in addition, the great calzada running to 
the southeast over the flats, to the southern extremity of 
Lake Tezeuco, and thence to the new Vera Cruz road ; 
that to Ohapultepec, southwest : and lastly, one in the 
direction of the northwest, towards Guautitlan. Several 
of these causeways are planted with avenues of poplars 
and other trees, and along two* of them, those of Chapul- 
tepec and Tacuba, the supply of fresh water is brought 
from the mountains to the capital by the aqueducts of 
Chapultepec and Santa Fe. % 

Let us turn together for our first excursion to the 
southward, upon the great calzada, leading to Chalco and 
San Augustin, by a continuation of which, the traveller 
attains the eastern declivity of the Sierra Madre, and 
the Pacific at Acapuleo. It was in this direction that 
two of our number made our first sortie, a few days 
after our arrival, early on a glorious morning, in whose 
brilliant sunshine the facades of the palaces shone like 
silver and enamel. 

A light caleche with a couple of well-bitted horses 
soon bore us over the pavement of the long street : and 
passing the Garita^ we entered upon the raised causeway, 
with the sterile tracts of the marshy flat surrounding the 
city on either hand — a vast tract of country with groups 
of volcanic hills in the middle ground — and in the dis- 
tance a splendid semicircular range of mountains, com- 
prising the highest summits of the great porphyritic 
chain. The Monte Ajusco, towards whose base we 
were bending our course, was comparatively at no great 

* The aqueduct of Chapultepec counts 904 arches, and is 10 } 8&& 
feet in length i that of Santa Fe, 33,464 feet. 



ROUTE TO SAN AUGUSTIN. 



89 



distance, while the two great volcanoes of Puebla tow- 
ered, with their snowy caps, from a distance of sixty 
miles to the south. Beyond the flats in your imme- 
diate vicinity — over which the various causeways with 
their avenues of elm and poplar, and the aqueducts, are 
seen stretching for miles towards the base of the hills 
— the eye catches a glimpse of a lovely region of ver- 
dure and cultivation, studded with innumerable orchards, 
villas, and tasteful country houses ; and many a village, 
indicated by the dome and tower of its church. In that 
direction the country appears like one vast garden, and 
the contrast between its verdure and gray tints, and the 
varied hue of both the intermediate plains and the slopes 
of the mountains beyond, is extremely beautiful. 

A few miles from the mud barrier of the city, you 
have the ancient road to the lake of Chalco, stretching 
towards the village of Mejicalzingo, and the foot of the 
Cerro di l'Estrella, to the left. The latter strangely 
moulded ridge, heaving up from the surrounding plain, 
is noted as the spot from which Cortez enjoyed his first 
near view of Tenochtitlan. Such are the extreme dry- 
ness and transparency of the atmosphere on the table 
land of Mexico, that the traveller soon discovers that he 
is quite unable to form a just idea of the relative posi- 
tion and distance of the objects scattered over this great 
plateau. Indeed this deception surpasses anything which 
I have observed in any other country, and is heightened 
by the brilliancy of the colouring observable in the general 
tints of the landscape. Thus, in looking towards the hill 
I have just named, it appears to be but little in advance 
of a huge mass more to the eastward, whose steep pur- 
ple sides, truncated summit, and yawning crater bespeak 
its volcanic origin. Yet as you proceed on your road, 
you see them remove from each other, leagues apart. 
On farther advance you see first one distinct cone dis- 
entangle itself from the bulk of the more remote, then 
another, and in the end discover a range of distinct cones 
increasing in height, and admit the complete fallacy of 
your first impressions. 

For many miles after he has gained what might be 
h2 



90 



HACIENDA SAN ANTONIO. 



called terra firma, the traveller is appalled by the sterility 
of the surrounding plain ; at the same time that the signs 
of a past system of careful drainage, and the ruins of 
huts and haciendas, show you that this curse of barren- 
ness has not been always the dowry of the soil. In 
truth, owing to causes which it is difficult to explain, 
some of the finest estates in the immediate vicinity of 
the capital have become absolutely desert, from the rapid 
spread of saline offlorescence formed upon the surface, 
which is more or less a main feature of all these great 
elevated plains. 

About six miles from the city, we traversed the dry 
bed of the Chorubusco, passing along a ridge raised 
several feet above the general surface of the country, 
and formed by the debris brought down by the river from 
the mountains in the rainy season. 

We now approached the noble estate and hacienda 
of San Antonio, covering a large tract of fertile country 
in advance, and admirably cultivated and governed by 
its noble proprietor, to whose family we had the advan- 
tage of being known ; and I shall take occasion at once 
to make use of the knowledge gained by subsequent 
visits here, to allude to a few points of interest connected 
with agriculture in this part of Mexico. 

The Hacienda San Antonio is situated at the distance 
of eight miles from the city, in the centre of a body of 
land of great fertility, extending from the line of the road 
far into the plain to the east and south, while exactly op- 
posite a small picturesque church, surrounded by trees, 
marks the limit of a vast field of hard black lava of re- 
volting sterility, deforming the country in the vicinity of 
San Augustin, and along the base of the neighbouring 
mountain of the Ajusco. It is known by the name of 
the Pedrigal. 

The road and a rivulet in front of the hacienda are 
shaded by fine silver poplars, and other well-known 
trees; in addition to the schinus or Peruvian pepper 
tree, of which the bright green foliage, and pendant clus- 
ters of red berries, form such a graceful ornament of the 
upper regions of the country. 



HACIENDA SAN ANTONIO. 



91 



A deep archway on the left-hand side of the road in- 
troduces you to the courtyard. In common with all the 
haciendas we had seen on the table land, the mass of 
buildings here are imposing from their great size and so- 
lidity of structure. Besides the dwelling house of the 
proprietors, built like the town houses in a quadrangle 
round an interior open court, they comprise a church, 
dwellings for the dependants, stables, and other offices on 
a large scale, and a granary, which, for massive architec- 
ture and dimensions, might serve for a state prison. This 
granary is calculated to hold twelve thousand cargas of 
maize, each carga weighing one hundred and eighty Eng- 
lish pounds. 

The principal products of the estate are maize and pul- 
que. Of the former the annual produce alone is estima- 
ted at eight thousand cargas. The whole domain is under 
excellent cultivation and management, and both from the 
excellent system of irrigation and drainage pursued, and 
its vicinity to the capital, is accounted one of the most 
lucrative in the whole valley. 

The mode of culture of the maguey,* from which, as 
I have before mentioned, the pulque is derived, may de- 
mand a little further elucidation. 

In appearance the great agave is a stately aloe of a 
dark green hue with leaves of great size and thickness. 
I have not unfrequently seen it rise higher than my head 
when seated on horseback. 

Its culture is a very productive one. The prime cost 
and the whole expense of labour demanded by the plant 
from first to last, may be estimated at three dollars and a 
half, and the ultimate produce at ten. In the sale of 
land, the well grown maguey plants are computed at the 
average value of five dollars. They are set in regular 
rows, about three yards apart, and come to perfection in 
from eight to ten years ; when, if left to themselves, 
they would flower. 

This is the interesting moment for the cultivator. He 
watches the plant, till by well-known signs he sees that 

* Agave Americana, 



92 



HACIENDA SAN ANTONIO. 



nature has completed her time, and that the maguey is 
upon the point of throwing up the high flowering stem. 
He then cuts deeply and systematically into the very 
heart of the plant, depriving it of the tight scroll of leaves 
which envelopes the embryo flower stalk, and scoops out 
a regular hollow of nearly a foot in diameter in the 
centre. 

The sap vessels of the mutilated plant still perform 
their allotted duty, and pour into this artificial bowl such 
an abundant supply of juice, that it requires emptying 
two or three times a day for eight or ten successive 
weeks. It is computed that a single maguey will yield 
six hundred pounds of sap in the course of the season. 
This is the pulque. It is commodiously drawn from the 
reservoir by means of suction into a long gourd, and 
thence transferred to goatskin sacks, where it ferments 
slightly, and is then drinkable and pleasant enough, if 
not too old. When long bottled in these primeval re- 
ceptacles, it takes a very peculiar schmaack, as a Dutch- 
man w r ould say, disagreeable to many foreigners, but I 
cannot say we found it sufficiently so to prevent our par- 
taking of it with great satisfaction as long as we were in 
the country. 

A brandy is distilled from the maguey, which is per- 
niciously intoxicating when taken in too freely. The 
ordinary pulque is slightly so, and the Indians frequently 
render it highly deleterious by steeping the berries of the 
schinus in it. 

It is hardly necessary to say that no maguey plant 
which has been mutilated lives ; its uses are, however, 
still various and important. The dried fibres are of uni- 
versal substitution for hemp, in the manufacture of cord- 
age and packing-cloths. 

There are estates in the valley of Mexico which re- 
turn as much as thirty-six thousand dollars annually from 
the culture of the maguey alone. 

This most useful plant comes to perfection on the va- 
rious plateaux of the table land, from the height of five 
thousand feet to that of nearly nine thousand feet, but 
beyond a certain elevation it ceases to be so productive. 



TLALPAM. 



93 



Besides the two principal products, the estates about 
Mexico furnish a large quantity of European grain, Mex- 
ican and European wheat, and abundance of beans, peas, 
Chili pepper, and vegetables, in addition to most of our 
European fruits. 

Surely there is not on the face of the earth a country 
more highly favoured by nature than New Spain. You 
can hardly name a mineral product which it does not 
hide within its bosom, or a vegetable one, of whatever 
zone, which it might not, under proper management, be 
made to bring to perfection in one part or another of its 
varied surface. Yet how little has man hitherto done to 
improve these advantages ! 

But to return for an instant to the hacienda. It may 
be remarked, that in common with all its neighbours of 
the same class, there are signs of interior decay observ- 
able, consequent upon the altered circumstances of the 
country : and the general magnificence of the plan and 
the dimensions of the apartments, contrast disagreeably 
with the scanty character of the furniture. These 
country seats were once palaces, but they are no longer 
so ; still there was a feudal air about the great hall of 
San Antonio, which for size and noble proportions might 
almost rival the ritter-saal of a German castle. The 
church had been completely despoiled of its ornaments, 
and now seemed to be utterly deserted. 

From the hacienda of San Antonio, the route con- 
tinues to run, in nearly a straight line, to Tlalpam or San 
Augustin de las Cuevas, a town with a large church and 
plaza, most delightfully situated among gardens and 
groves, at the very foot of the hills in advance of the 
Ajusco. It is a favourite resort of the citizens of all 
classes from the capital, many of the wealthier of whom 
have country seats here, to which they repair to enjoy 
fine air and verdure, in exchange for the heat and glare 
of the city. 

Among these, the country seat and gardens of the 
exiled General Moran are particularly beautiful. The 



94 



THE CORDILLERA. 



whole country in the neighbourhood is under high cul- 
tivation. At Whitsuntide a great fair is held at the town, 
when thousands assemble hither from Mexico and the 
adjoining district. The lengths to which gambling is 
carried on at the monte tables of St. Augustin, at that 
season of festivity, are almost incredible. Many of the 
once wealthy families of this country have been beggared 
by giving themselves up to a taste for this witless game 
of headlong chance. 

No language of mine can give you a just idea of the 
scene from the neighbouring heights. They command 
a view of vast extent over the southern portion of the 
valley, with the broad plain, the distant lakes Xochimilco 
and Chalco, various groups of volcanic hills in the middle 
ground, and the wall of mountains surmounted by the 
snowy summits of Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl on the 
horizon. 

The Ajusco, a compact mass of porphyritic rock, soar- 
ing to the height of thirteen thousand feet above the 
Pacific, rises directly in the rear. It is the highest point 
of the eastern wall of the cordillera which girdles the 
valley. 

In the view from this point, which I had more than 
once the opportunity of examining in detail, nothing 
struck me more than the great number of truncated cones 
and volcanic summits within sight. 

Though there exists throughout this portion of the 
continent positive proofs of the agency of internal fire, 
in upheaving the whole of the table land of the Mexican 
cordillera to its present extraordinary level, an exami- 
nation of the continent would seem to indicate that the 
forces set in action by igneous agency, have been more 
active in one particular direction than another ; that is, 
along a nearly right line of no great breadth, enclosed be- 
tween 18° and 20° of north latitude. Commencing with 
the volcano of San Martin de Tuxtla, on the shore of the 
gulf, thirty-six leagues south of Vera Cruz, and moving 
across the surface of the country, a little to the north- 
west you find in succession — the gigantic cone of Orizaba, 



THE CORDILLERA. 



95 



and its neighbour the Coffre de Perote, the volcano of 
Tlascala, the great volcano of Puebla or Popocatepetl, 
the valley of Mexico with its innumerable cones, the 
Ajusco, the Nevada of Toluca, and the active volcanoes 
of Jorullo and Colima ; while report would incline you to 
pursue the same general direction over the Pacific ocean, 
for upward of three hundred miles, to the islands of Re- 
villagigedo, which are said to be attributable to the same 
cause. Of the central group, Popocatepetl, the Ajusco, 
and the volcano of Toluca, are exactly upon the same 
line. I do not name Iztaccihuatl, " the Indian with snowy 
breasts because, though supposed to be, and generally 
called a volcano, I have heard the fact of its possessing 
a crater repeatedly denied on such respectable authority, 
that I almost doubt whether it has been justly named 
such. 

Of these volcanoes, that of Tuxtla was in eruption 
about the commencement of the century. Orizaba, or 
Citlat tepetl — " the star mountain" was in violent erup- 
tion, according to Humboldt, between 1545 — 1566. Of 
the eruptions of the Coftre de Perote, and of the volcano 
of Tlascala, no tradition exists to my knowledge. Po- 
pocatepetl, " the mountain casting out smoke" has shown 
signs of slight combustion at times during the present 
century, and was in active eruption at the time of the 
Spanish invasion, when Diego Ordaz, a Spanish officer, 
attempted to ascend it. The Nevada of Toluca has 
been long extinct. The crater, if report says true, con- 
tains a lake abounding in fish. 

The eruptions of the Ajusco, and the long chain of 
volcanic heights to the southward, are without record : 
though tradition says that the Chicli, signifying, in the 
Indian language, " the hill that casts up sparks" an infe- 
rior cone at its base, from which the huge stream of the 
Pedrigal probably proceeded, was in partial eruption at 
the emigration of the Aztecs into Anahuac, in the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth century. 

The two last upon my list, those of Colima and Jorullo, 
are still active, and were, in fact, the only active volcanoes 
in Mexico at the time of our visit. 



96 



THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 



Though, therefore, there exists but little outward sign 
of the present activity of the internal fires which are still 
surely smouldering beneath the surface of the earth in 
this part of the world, and occasionally shake the moun- 
tain-piled continent from its foundation ; the signs of 
their past power are such as to strike the observer with 
great wonder and awe. 

To me the whole of the hollow valley of Mexico, with 
its ramparts of porphyric rocks, gave the idea of a vast 
crater, which had been, in ages of which no human tra- 
dition remains, the grand and principal vent through 
which the pent-up element, after, by repeated efforts, 
heaving up the continent step by step from its primeval 
level, finally escaped through the crust of (he earth. 

Would you accuse me of yielding too freely to the play 
of imagination, when I thought that I could read in the 
sublime features of the vast scene before me, the unre- 
corded history of past centuries ; and faintly picture to 
myself the convulsions of which the valley around me 
must assuredly have been the theatre ? At the time 
when the earthquake was bursting those innumerable fis- 
sures and barrancas which are observable in the surface 
of the lower districts ; raising one sheet of level country 
after another to its ordained elevation ; and sending up 
one long, towering range of porphyritic mountains after 
another from the abyss to the sky : how little can the 
fancy paint the scenes of awful desolation which must 
have existed here — the great combustion which may 
have given birth to the valley, with its basins of saline 
waters — and the successive formation and appearance of 
the numberless cones before me. The world has grown 
old, but the records of that age are fresh around us. 
What must have been the signs in the earth and sky, as 
the ungovernable and subtle element destroyed the un- 
seen obstacles to its escape into the upper air, and the 
surface began to yield to the tremendous force exerted 
by the internal fires underneath. Here rose the huge 
pyramid, based upon the wall of the surrounding moun- 
tains ; growing, day by day and year by year, by the ac- 
cumulation of its own refuse, amid the showers of its own 



THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 



97 



ashes, the flow* of its lavas, and amid the sound of its own 
fearful thunders, till it soared to where its summit now 
glistens, in the cold region of ice and snow. There an 
abrupt cone, bursting through the level plain, or from the 
bosom of the waters; disgorging its load of lava and cin- 
der: and then another, and yet a third — a cluster of 
smoking mountains ! Here a shapeless mass of molten 
rock and lava, bubbling above the surface, then cooling, 
and as it cooled, so remaining for ages, a black and steril 
monument, amid the landscape, of the forgotten reign of 
fire : and there again, a sudden throe at the base of some 
labouring mountain, opening a yawning abyss, from 
which, amid fire and smoke, the seething lava would run 
down like oil upon the plain, or to the far distant sea. 

This is no overwrought fancy ; there can be no doubt 
but these things were, though perhaps no eye, but His 
who "looketh on the earth, and it trembleth," and 
"toucheth the hills, and they smoke," bore witness to 
them ! 

The road which ascends the steep pile of hills and 
mountains behind San Augustin, is that of the Cruz del 
Marques, one of the six great routes which traverse the 
Cordillera, and form the connection between the city, 
and the vast extent of country on every side, of which it 
is the metropolis. The others are, the two routes to 
Puebla, and Vera Cruz — the more ancient of which 
passes over the elevated ridge, between the two great 
volcanoes ; and the other, which is the new and ordinary 
line, to the north of Iztaccihuatl. Fourthly, the route of 
the interior, keeping the general level of the table land, 
to Queretaro, Guanaxuato, and Durango. Fifthly, that 
of Real del Monte, by which we approached ; and, sixth- 
ly, that of Toluca to the west. 

In recollecting the localities worthy of attention, in the 
more immediate vicinity of Mexico, which we repeatedly- 
visited, I feel quite at a loss which to bring into the 
greater prominence. 

I cannot forget the great interest which hangs over the 

i 



98 



APOPOTLA. 



vicinity of Tacuba, and the road leading to it : the scene 
of the disastrous flight of Cortez, with his handful of 
troops and allies, on the night of the first of July, 1520, 
long known and deplored as La Noche Triste. 

It was not unusual among the European residents in 
Mexico, to ride at an early hour out to the village of San 
Cosmo, to an olive garden attached to a meson, situated 
tw T o miies from the west gate, and probably on the very 
verge of what was once the lake, and the termination of 
the ancient causeway, on which the roused vengeance of 
the Mexican cost the invader half his comrades. Within 
the bounds of the city, and close to the foreign cemetery, 
you are shown the dike over which Alvarado made his 
celebrated leap in his extremity. It is now a ditch of 
about three yards across, and is still called the Salto de 
Alvarado. 

The views along this route towards Chapultepec on 
the left, and Guadaloupe on the right, are exquisitely 
beautiful. 

Another hamlet, Apopotla, which you pass half a mile 
before you reach Tacuba, contains, within the enclosure 
of its churchyard, one of those noble cypresses of the 
country, which you still find scattered here and there, of 
a size which warrants their being considered monuments 
of an age anterior to the earliest traditions of the conti- 
nent. That at Apopotla is a mighty wreck, with a bole 
fifty feet in diameter at the height of a man, and of much 
greater girth above. 

The size to which this noble species, the cupressus 
disticha, attains in some parts of New Spain, is almost in- 
credible. There is one at Atlixco, in the intendency of 
Puebla, measuring seventy-six feet in circumference ; and 
the largest known, is to be seen at Mitla, in Oaxaca ; 
which, still in its prime, is no less than ninety-two feet 
round the trunk. The largest in the vicinity of Mexico, 
are those in the ancient garden, at the foot of Chapulte- 
pec, of which the most remarkable may be sixty feet in 
circumference. 

Tacuba lies near the foot of the hills, and is at the 



CHAPULTEPEC. 



99 



present day chiefly noted for the large and noble church 
which was erected there by Cortez. A little in the 
rear, the ruins of an ancient Mexican pyramid are dis- 
cernible, constructed of regular courses of unburnt 
bricks, six inches in thickness ; and hard by, you trace 
the lines of a Spanish encampment. I do not hazard the 
opinion, but it might appear by the coincidence, that this 
was the very position chosen by Cortez for his intrench- 
ment, after the retreat just mentioned, and before he 
commenced his painful route towards Otumba. 

Immediately behind Tacuba and San Joachim, you 
reach a range of high grounds, which, like the lower 
portions of the mountains surrounding the valley, are per- 
fectly denuded of the wood which once covered them, 
and even of soil. They exhibit no vegetation, but scat- 
tered bushes of cactus and schinus, except in the vicinity 
of the great Hacienda Morales, and other farms scattered 
at intervals on the rising ground. From the extremity 
of the Alameda, you may easily fall into the causeway to 
Tacuba, by turning to the left; or yet better, to Cha- 
pultepec, by following the Paseo Nuevo, an open road 
raised a few feet above the level of the surrounding 
meadows, and used as a public evening drive, in rotation 
with the Paseo de las Vigas, at the southeastern extrem- 
ity of the city. But I soon got tired of the stately recre- 
ation of the Promenade ; and after a few experiments at 
playing " Vaimable" among its stiff' walks and stiffer 
statues, I constantly turned my horse's head in one or the 
other direction. 

No traveller, ancient or modern, has failed to notice 
the beauty and singularity of position of Chapultepec 
— the hill of the grasshopper — at three miles distance 
from the city. It is an insulated rock of porphyry, 
springing up upon what was the margin of the lake, and 
now surrounded on all sides by fields and meadows over- 
spread by luxuriant vegetation. That it was a favourite 
place of resort of the Aztec monarchs, there is no doubt ; 
and its foot is still clothed with an ancient garden in which 



100 



TACUBAYA. 



they sought repose and solace from the heats of their 
shade-less city. And though, at the present day, neglect 
and ruin are evident on every hand ; and their pleasant 
palaces are all destroyed, their fish ponds and baths 
broken down, and scarcely discernible — though their 
aviaries, and thickets of sweet-smelling flowers and me- 
dicinal herbs, have disappeared, and their shady groves 
are despoiled of many a noble tree ; yet there is still a 
majesty in these shades, all tangled and neglected, and 
overgrown as they are, which is exciting to the fancy, 
and dear to the imagination; and no one will enter these 
thickets, shaded by the graceful pepper tree, and linger 
at the foot of those giant cypresses, without recollecting 
the strange and sad fate of him who was here accus- 
tomed to pass his hours of retirement. 

Of all the royal gardens in the immediate vicinity, 
which were maintained by Montezuma, this at Chapul- 
tepec is the only one which retains its original form and 
destination. It girdles the rock, which may be about a 
mile in circuit, and is truly a delicious locality for one 
who, like myself, is fond of shade and quiet. The rock 
above is now crowned by a large and palacious building 
of noble design, erected by the Viceroy Galvez ; half 
country seat, half castle ; and made to suit either the 
purposes of war or peace, as might happen. It is now 
rapidly falling to decay. The view from its platform is 
undoubtedly one of the most delicious and complete 
among the numberless beautiful points of view in the ba- 
sin of Mexico, partly from the isolated position of the 
hill, and the near vicinity of the numberless domes and 
towers of the city, with the aqueducts and causeways, 
and the blue lake beyond — and partly from the extreme 
fertility and loveliness of the region stretching from hence 
along the base of the mountains towards the Pedrigal. In 
this direction, the town of Tacubaya, with its churches, 
villas, and the former archiepiscopal palace, is the most 
conspicuous object. The great church there is a large 
and splendid edifice ; and the palace, even in the state of 
utter decay and neglect which has overtaken its courts, 
galleries, and lovely gardens, is well worth visiting. Th§ 



GUADALOUPE. 



101 



gardens present a sad but beautiful scene, with their tan- 
gled labyrinths of myrtle, jessamine, and sweet pease, and 
their stained and voiceless fountains ; and the view from 
them is such as none can picture to themselves who have 
not gazed upon it. 

I had a partiality for my early rides in the direction 
which 1 have just been describing, both from the extreme 
beauty of the views, and because they were the most ac- 
cessible from the centre of the city where we had our 
quarters. But as I desire to give you some idea of the 
country on every side, I may mention that on several oc- 
casions 1 did not fail to return upon my steps through the 
tedious length of suburb to the north, and regaining the 
calzada in that direction, proceed to visit the shrine and 
rock of the patron saint of Mexico, Nuestra Seriora de 
Guadaloupe. 

There are three churches here ; that on the rock; the 
splendid and spacious Collegiate Church, at the foot of 
the mountain, one of the most costly in New Spain, 
teeming with massive silver ornaments — and the Capella 
del Pozo, a richly decorated chapel covered by a dome, 
built over a mineral spring. 

The more ancient church is erected upon the barren 
rock of Tepeyayac, which forms the most southerly spur 
of a range of high mountains, which rise, as it were, in 
the very midst of the valley of Mexico, and may be called 
insulated, since they are only united to the sierra on the 
west, by an inconsiderable ridge lying between Guautit- 
lan and Tanepantla. 

I here picked up acquaintance with a dapper little 
priest, one of the canons of the great church, celebrated 
among the Europeans for keeping the best pulque in the 
whole country, a bottle of which he never failed to pro- 
duce on receiving the compliment of a visit. Under 
shadow of his favour, I had several opportunities of see- 
ing the shrine and its riches at my leisure. Neustra Se- 
nora of Guadaloupe, whose worship on this rock has suc- 
ceeded to that of the goddess Tonantzin — the Mexican 
Ceres — is the patron saint of the city of Mexico. The 

i 2 



102 MEXICO. 



clumsy imposture to which she owes her elevation to this 
dignity is not worth recounting. There is only one rival 
to her dominion in the affections of the common people 
in the valley of Mexico, and that is Nuestra Senora de 
los Remedios, whose shrine is to be seen in a village 
near the base of the mountains to the west of the city. 
The leperos and poblanitas of the city pin their faith, in 
case of any impending danger, upon her wonder-work- 
ing image; and in cases of great emergency — as during 
the prevalence of the cholera, last year — she is brought 
with great pomp into the metropolis. On one occasion 
it was settled that she should pass the night in town, as 
the weather was unfriendly, and a suitable lodging was 
provided : but when morning dawned she had vanished. 
The fact was, that nothing could keep her away from 
her own flock at los Remedios, where accordingly she 
was found at dawn in her usual place ; covered with 
mud, however, with having walked a number of leagues 
in a dark and rainy night. And this miracle is believed ! 
Alas ! poor human nature ! 

Wherever I go, I carry about with me an English- 
man's weakness, and am particularly observant of climate 
and weather. This may be pardonable in a locality so 
peculiar as that of Mexico, where you are raised far above 
the ordinary region of mists and vapours, into that of frost 
and snow, and yet, from local and extraordinary causes, 
enjoy a climate of peculiar beauty and salubrity.* 

The thermometer in the city of Mexico very seldom 
falls to the freezing point, and as rarely rises to a degree 
of oppressive heat ; the usual range throughout the year 
being from 50 to 80° of Fahrenheit. 

* The city of Mexico was nevertheless visited by the cholera in the 
course of the preceding year 1833. Out of a population of 160,000, 
15,000 are stated to have fallen victims to its virulence. At the height, 
as many as 1400 deaths occurred in the course of twenty-four hours. 
Very few cases were spasmodic. Laudanum was found to be the most 
effectual remedy. Of the English residents all escaped with one single 
exception, while a considerable number of the French were carried off. 



MEXICO. 



103 



During our month's residence, the weather was ex- 
tremely unsettled ; and twice during a few rainy days, 
when the temperature was remarkably chill, we saw the 
snow-line descend several thousand feet upon the great 
volcanoes. 

For the remainder of the short period alluded to, the 
w r eather was warm, and occasionally hot ; with partial 
thunder showers, during the passage of which the streets 
of the city were deluged by water to that degree that 
the crossings would have been impracticable for fine gen- 
tlemen and ladies with shoes and stockings, were it not 
for the cargadores and Indians, upon whose backs we 
were taught to mount without scruple, in order to save 
ourselves a wetting. 

As to the rest, we could not be insensible to the pecu- 
liar rarity and dryness in the atmosphere, for which the 
table land is remarkable. The sensation of the heat on 
the skin is far greater than the degree of warmth indi- 
cated by the thermometer would appear to warrant,* 
owing to the astonishing degree of reflection of the sun's 
rays, which is produced by the vast and naked spread of 
the plains, the masses of mountains by which they are 
surmounted, and the diminished pressure which the rari- 
fied air exerts upon the moisture given forth by the body. 
The most violent exercise never produces the slightest 
sign of perspiration ; at the same time that you can 
ascend no elevation, not even the steps of houses, with- 
out being sensible of an unusual shortness of breath. 

But while I have dipped my pen in my inkstand to 
allude to natural phenomena, I must not forget to men- 
tion the earthquakes, from which the city is rarely ex- 
empt at this season of the year. 

1 omitted to mention at the close of the preceding let- 
ter, that when we arrived at our last halting place before 
entering the city, we heard that the first earthquake of 
the season had been felt at ten the preceding night ; and 
that more than usual alarm had been excited, on account 
of the duration, force, and .the character of the shock. 
This I am convinced I felt at San Mateo, where we slept 
on the night in question ; though it was shrouded in the 



104 



MEXICO. 



dreaming fancy of finding myself suddenly trotting among 
broken rocks on the back of our fat mule. 

When we arrived at the city we heard that another 
had occurred at six o'clock that very morning ; though 
we, who, at that very time, were getting to horse in the 
courtyard of the meson at three leagues' distance, had 
been totally unconscious of it. These were the first ; 
and glancing over my diary I see notices of daily shocks 
occurring, at different intervals, for about ten days after 
our arrival. 

According to many who had the means of making the 
observations, for several entire days the earth was found 
to exhibit a tremulous motion, with very short intervals 
of complete repose. 

The strongest shock of which I was myself aware, 
was felt about eleven a. m. on the 22d, when I was roused 
from the perusal of a newspaper in the apartments of 
the American charge d'affaires, by a sensation of confu- 
sion and giddiness ; and, on raising my eyes, saw the 
curtains and candelabras in motion. On going to the 
elevated balcony, the scene presented by the broad and 
spacious thoroughfare below was one of the most striking 
1 ever saw. There was no terror and no confusion in 
the street. Each individual of the passing multitude, as 
far as we could see, was on his knees — each in the spot 
where he had become sensible of the terrible phenome- 
non — the half-naked Indian beside the veiled dama, and 
the loathsome leper beside the gaudily dressed official. 
The rider kneeled beside his horse, and the arriero among 
his mules ; the carriages had halted, and their gay con- 
tents bent in clusters in the centre of the pavement. 
The bustle of the crowded thoroughfare had become 
hushed, and nothing was heard but a low murmur of 
pattered prayers ; while, with a slow, lateral motion 
from north to south, the whole city swung like a ship at 
anchor, for about the space of a minute and a half. When 
the shock was over, the multitude rose ; and each went 
about his business with a nonchalance which proved how 
the frequent recurrences of this phenomenon had nerved 
the public mind. In fact, it is seldom that they are of a 



MEXICO. 



105 



violence to injure the massive structure of the city ; and 
the alluvial and elastic soil upon which it is based is much 
in its favour. 

Nevertheless, many of the churches show how much 
repeated shocks have injured them ; and though the ap- 
palling inclination from the perpendicular, noticeable in 
many towers and facades, is rather attributable to the 
badness of the foundations, yet during these days there 
was enough to make a brave man pause for an instant 
before passing under certain churches — such as the Pro- 
fesa for instance, which looks as if it would fall upon 
the slightest provocation. 

Most of these shocks were very trivial, and scarcely 
perceptible. The first I have noticed was by far the 
most serious, and considerably damaged several of the 
churches and the aqueducts. It began with the usual 
lateral swing from east to west, and then suddenly took 
the perpendicular movement, w r hich is always the most 
dreaded. We found ultimately that it was experienced 
about the same time at Guadalaxara ; and very severely 
at Vera Cruz, and at Acapulco, having thus upheaved 
and agitated the whole continent, with its enormous pile 
of mountains, from sea to sea — a fact which may give 
you an idea of the great depth at which the seat of this 
tremendous power must be situated. 

There is, however, a caprice in the effects produced 
which it is difficult to explain. The same earthquake 
which I have thus noticed as so sensibly felt at Mexico, 
was not observable at Guadaloupe, within a mile of the 
city ; while at Tacuba it was yet more severe. It w r as 
felt neither at Real del Monte, nor at Regla, while a 
hacienda situated between those two places was shaken 
to its foundation. It was rumoured that the hot baths 
situated on the Penon, an isolated mass of lava be- 
tween the city and the lake, had increased in heat since 
the commencement of the shocks ; and further, that 
Popocatepetl had shown slight signs of combustion ; but 
the most careful observation and attention could detect 
nothing of the kind from the terraces of the city. Morn- 



1C6 



MEXICO. 



ing after morning I directed my glass to him, but no per- 
ceptible vapour dimmed the clear silver outline of his 
snowy summit. He was at rest, and he may perhaps 
sleep for ages. 



LETTER VI. 

We had not been many days in the city of Mexico, 
when we made the discovery, that notwithstanding the 
excellent letters of introduction with which we had been 
furnished in Europe and the United States — as far as 
the natives of the country were concerned, w 7 e should 
have to be the contrivers of our own amusements. 

It is true, our calls were returned and our cards ac- 
knowledged. We exchanged compliments ; bartered 
bows, polite speeches, and grateful acknowledgments, 
for the boiling-hot, rapturous expressions of ecstasy of 
our Mexican acquaintances, at the unlooked-for happiness 
of seeing us in this world. We smiled in delight, in the 
very extremity of gratitude, at the devotion with which 
the palaces, the horses, the very lives of our noble male 
friends, were seemingly placed at our command without 
any reserve. 

It appeared as if every other duty or pleasure was to 
be relinquished for the felicity of cultivating our friend- 
ship. We received a thousand compliments, which the 
gayest of our European admirers never had the wit to 
conceive, or the effrontery to utter. On one or two oc- 
casions, we had the ecstasy of presenting a comely black- 
eyed dama or signorita with a balmy cigarita; and of 
receiving it again from her delicate hand, after it had 
been consecrated by a preliminary whiff. 

And how then ? — why, after the first interview some 
of the most impassioned of our acquaintances were never 
again heard of. Others evidently kept out of our way. 
Two or three who had travelled in Europe were again 



MEXICO. 



107 



met with in society, at the houses of the European resi- 
dents, where of course they behaved with the proper re- 
serve, staid decorum, and cool nonchalance of civilized 
and well-bred men : and the greatest attention which we 
met with during our stay, from any individual — with the 
exception of one single family connected by marriage 
with Europeans — was an occasional impromptu invita- 
tion to come and sit for an hour in an evening, u quite in 
a family way." This was laughable ; arid the more so, 
as we found that it was the genera] experience among 
foreigners of all grades. 

There were those among the diplomatic corps, whose 
object it has been from the commencement of their 
residence in this city, to cultivate a friendly and social 
spirit with the families of natives of so-called education, 
attached to whatever party they might be ; but a series 
of the most ludicrous vexations and disappointments 
showed them the total impossibility — the chimerical na- 
ture of the scheme ; and we found the society at their 
houses literally reduced to the superior class of Euro- 
peans, and half a dozen Mexicans, whose visits to Eu- 
rope had rendered them a little more susceptible of the 
advantages of a different state of society, from that af- 
forded by their own country. 

The European merchants were equally unfortunate, 
and found in the constant display of jealousy, and in the 
low T intrigues of their rivals among the natives, no open- 
ing for a more Hberal state of feeling and conversation. 
Consequently, they kept aloof from each other. 

Then came the lower orders of foreign speculators. 
All found themselves the subject of jealous hatred in 
Mexico. "How does monsieur like Mexico?" said a 
garrulous French barber to me, the very morning of 
my arrival. "Fine streets, fine houses, fine churches, 
fine clothes ! — but the people — they are all, all, all, from 
the president to the leper, what we in France call ca- 
naille, monsieur" 4< Ma foi, quHls sont betes ces Mexi- 
cans" said the Belgian host of a meson at Tacubaya : 
" all, from the highest to the lowest, are as ignorant as that 



108 



MEXICO. 



bottle /" — and he pointed to an empty one. 16 You ask 

a question, 1 Quien sdbe t 9 * is all you get for answer. 
You show them something they never saw before, 6 Santa 
Maria, que bonito /' is their only exclamation." 

But the most eloquent was a little German saddler, 
who wound up a long High-Dutch tirade against the 
miserable inhabitants of the country, their mode of living, 
their ignorance, dishonesty, and the hard lot which com- 
pelled him to cast his life away among such wretches, 
by saying, " There is not von man here so honest as my 
tog Spitz — Carumpa ! 99 

But in our case, besides this known feeling of jealousy 
of the Mexicans towards the foreigner, something was 
to be laid to the charge of the season of Lent, during 
which it seemed that there were neither bullfights nor 
tertullia. / 

In addition, the veteran Galli, the faded Pelligrini, in 
short, the whole corps tfopera Italienne was out of hu- 
mour. And they might well be. They had been invited 
to charm the eyes and ears of the Mexicans for the sea- 
son, under certain conditions. The government had 
bound itself to ensure them a certain amount of re- 
muneration ; that is, whatever sum their professional re- 
ceipts might fall short of it, it had pledged itself to make 
good. Now, as it happened, the people were in poor 
spirits, and had neither time nor ears for them. Their 
receipts fell far- short of their hopes, and in utter distress 
they applied to the liberal government. Government 
responded to their application in rather a cavalier man- 
ner ; for instead of hard dollars, it sent a file of pass- 
ports regularly made out, from the prima donna to the 
scene shifter and candle snuffer, and the advice to take 
their departure forthwith. This was poor satisfaction ; 
but singers are proverbially unfortunate in Mexico. 
There was, for example, Garcia, who, travelling, was 
set upon by banditti and pillaged, even to his snuffbox, 
diamond ring, and pantaloons : after which, the robbers 



* Who knows ! 



MEXICO. 



109 



insisted that he should sing for them. He did so — 
and was hissed most obstreperously by his lawless audi- 
tory ! It is said that he had borne the pillaging with be- 
coming temper, but the hissing he never forgot or for- 
gave. 

Thus situated, we made the best of our position, and 
determined to enjoy ourselves in our own way : riding 
out every morning, frequently dining and spending the 
afternoon at the house of one or other of our European 
acquaintances, and passing the evening at the paseo, 
or on the elevated azotea of one of the fine palaces, 
which, now half warehouse and half dwelling house, 
are, many of them, in the occupation of foreigners. 
The scale of the interior arrangement of these princely 
structures corresponds with the stately exterior. They 
contain suites of elevated apartments, now despoiled 
of their rich furniture, and melancholy from their vast 
extent and want of inhabitants ; but evincing in their 
fresh gay gilding, carved work, panelling, and painted 
ceilings, both the past glories of which they have been 
the scene, and the extreme purity of the atmosphere 
which circulates within their lofty walls. The views 
from the more elevated, over the flat roofs and the 
numerous domes of the city, and the complete pano- 
rama of mountains, were of a beauty which is indescri- 
bable. 

There are certain thoroughfares and places of resort, 
in Mexico, which seem to pour one incessant stream of 
human beings, from sunrise to sunset. Such are the 
main streets leading to the causeways ; the vicinity of 
Parian and Plaza Mayor, where the bulk of the busi- 
ness of the capital is concentrated ; the various mar- 
kets ; and the quarters where the canals from the lakes 
terminate. 

Numberless light canoes laden with fruits, flowers, 
vegetables, maize, and straw, meat, wild ducks, and 
game of various description, approach the centre of the 
city by the latter channels ; frequently accompanied by 

K 



110 



MEXICO, 



the Indian speculators, and their families young and old, 
Thence the cargoes are transported on the back, through 
the press of rival mules, trooping in from the cahadas $ 
and are deposited in the spacious market place near the 
university. 

The spectacle afforded by this crowded area was a 
never-failing source of interest — whether our observa- 
tion was directed to the habits of the Indian, the varied 
picturesque costumes, the nature of the commodities 
exposed for sale, or the peculiarities of individual char- 
acter. 

The Mexican and Ottomie Indian possesses very 
distinct features from his North American brethren. He 
has a shorter face and thicker lips, and the cheek bone 
is much more protuberant. 

During the early hours, good humour evidently per- 
vaded the press ; and the public spirit seemed to harmo- 
nize with the freshness of the flowers — of which, as in 
the days of Cortez, there is here always an inexhausti- 
ble profusion ; with the bright colours of the fresh-culled 
fruits and vegetables ; and the orderly arrangement of 
the various piles of calico, hides, earthenware, baskets, 
ropes, and matting. The toil of their journey, and that 
of subsequent arrangement being over, the Indian and 
his family mi^ht be seen seated at their morning meal of 
tortillas and Chile, in peace ; and in satisfied expectation 
of the approach of a customer. % 

I never failed to remark, however, an exception to this 
tranquillity, in the person and demeanour of an old, gro- 
tesque alguazil, who appeared to have the duty of main- 
taining order — or rather, of stirring up disorder, in that 
part of the market which lay opposite to the university. 
He usually lost his temper at sunrise ; and, as far as I 
could discover, never found it till after sunset — swear- 
ing most grievously the livelong day ; thumping the 
cruppers of the mules, and the heads and shoulders of 
the Indians ; overturning hampers, kicking over the 
baskets, knocking down the piles of merchandise, and 
putting everything in confusion, in dogged determination 
to see all go according to rule and square. He seemed 



MEXICO. 



Ill 



perfectly careless of consequences : and he met the ob- 
jurgation and vociferous upbraidings of the dark-eyed 
and dark-haired female whose arrangements he had in- 
vaded, with the same recklessness with which he braved 
the sullen scowl of hatred from her swarthy mate. 

The heat of noon brought comparative silence. Mul- 
titudes had departed ; and those who maintained their 
stand were dozing : but a little later, the old alguazil, with 
uplifted staff and voice, might be seen at his unwelcome 
labours : goading bipeds and quadrupeds ; twitching the 
hair of the one, and the tails of the other ; and dispensing 
execrations upon both. Unfortunately, I must allow, 
that at this hour, there was some reason for his inter- 
ference ; as the numberless pulquerias in the vicinity of 
the market, to which many of the males had retired in 
the morning, while their wives carried on the business, 
now poured forth their inebriated occupants ; and many 
a family group which had entered the city in harmony, 
was seen retiring to their canoe amid violence and lam- 
entations. 

The shops in Mexico do not make any great figure ; 
they are in general open, and of small dimensions. Cer- 
tain quarters are devoted to distinct lines of business. 
Thus the jewellers have their street ; the sellers of man- 
gas theirs; and so forth. Coachmaking is among the 
most important mechanical trades of the capital ; and, 
perhaps, the most lucrative after that of the gold and 
silver smiths ; but no trade can be very bad, if we con- 
sider the price asked for almost every article. Saddlery, 
confectionary, millinery, and tailoring flourish. The 
vender of medicines seems to have a stirring business. 
The Parian, which I have before named, forms a depos- 
itory of a great proportion of the home-manufactured 
goods ; and the hire of the stalls brings in a large revenue 
to government. This alone can be pleaded in defence 
of its maintenance, to the destruction of the beauty of 
the Plaza Mayor. It is also the principal resort of the 
evangelistas, writers of letters, memorials, and billets- 
doux, for the unlearned of the city. Many foreign arti- 



112 



MEXICO. 



sans have of late years settled in Mexico, but are always 
regarded with jealous dislike by the natives. 

The works in wax are celebrated ; and there is an 
artist, Hidalgo by name, whose models of national char- 
acter and costumes are of rare beauty and fidelity. 
There is evidently much native talent of an imitative 
kind ; but the disadvantages under which the country 
labours, are sufficient to crush and extinguish it. 

Owing to the causes before alluded to, I am totally 
unable to give you the smallest insight into the manner 
in which the best classes of the natives employ them- 
selves during the early part of the day. Soon after sun- 
rise, the churches held their proportions of worshippers 
of all ranks. The hour of prayer over and gone, while 
we suppose that the males repaired to their ordinary 
occupations, private or official, the higher class of females 
disappeared altogether. Among the crowds in the great 
thoroughfares, at the market, under the great arcades, or 
on the promenades — it was a rare occurrence to descry 
the mantilla of a lady of condition. 

Now and then, it is true, a solitary maiden, followed 
by her watchful duenna, might cross your path, saluting 
your nostrils by a gentle whiff from the lighted cigarita, 
which, like the glance of her black eye, was but half 
shrouded by the ample mantilla ; but this was not a usual 
apparition. 

It was evident that they neither went out shopping, 
nor visiting, nor gallivanting, but staid within doors — 
which, on the charitable supposition that they were prop- 
erly employed, was well enough ; but hereof deponent 
saith not. 

It was far otherwise in the evening. Then all, young 
and old, came out of their hiding places, and the Alameda 
and paseos before sunset, and the portales after dark, 
swarmed with the damas and signoritas of the city. 

The number of carriages which repair to the evening 
promenade is very great ; and there is certainly consid- 
erable taste and luxury displayed among them. 

They are in general capacious vehicles, with bodies 



MEXICO. 



113 



well and substantially built, if not exactly after the pres- 
sent European taste ; gayly decorated and painted in the 
old sumptuous style in vogue two centuries ago ; but the 
huge scaffolding on which they are pendant defies de- 
scription. This, from one extremity to another, cannot 
frequently be less than fourteen or sixteen feet — I 
like to keep within bounds. I should esteem it impos- 
sible to overturn one of them by any lawful means. 
They are drawn by two or four steeds, or mules, heavily 
caparisoned; and, when once in motion, may be seen 
soberly trotting round the Alameda, or over the paseo, 
for a brief space ; when they draw up in solemn state- 
liness side by side, in one of the open spaces, to allow 
the occupants a full opportunity to see and to be seen. 
The gentlemen on horseback, meanwhile, course up and 
down, with much the same objects in view; halting and 
chatting with their acquaintances, or rapidly exchanging, 
in passing, that friendly little gesture with the fingers, 
which passes current among familiars in this country. I 
will not deny that you see some fine horses, and some 
striking costumes ; and further, some handsome faces ; 
and that there is a kind of excitement produced by the 
bustle of these evening promenades, particularly when 
they take place on the Paseo de las Vigas : but whether 
it was that I love not crowds, and am given to seek more 
quiet pleasures, and to prefer scenes of less glare and 
dust ; or was apt to be too strongly reminded by them 
of the vanity of the world ; or, lastly, that I was con- 
scious that Pinto was one of the shabbiest steeds in the 
city to look at, in spite of the daily care of Don Floresco, 
and that my cutting a dash was out of the question — I 
soon grew tired of attending the promenade, and used to 
gird on my weapon and slink off in another direction. 
Several times a week, about sunset, the band of the 
artillery regiment quartered in the city, played for half 
an hour in the vicinity of their barracks ; and many of 
the loungers, both mounted and on foot, were accustomed 
to repair thither : and, to do them justice, I have heard 
far worse military bands in Europe. It was whispered 
that the music was by far the best feature of the regi- 

k3 



114 



MEXICO. 



merit, and I think with every probability of truth. Like 
all other portions of the Mexican army which came in 
our way, the officers were gaudily dressed in very bad 
taste, and the men looked more like footpads than sol- 
diers. 

And now the scene of the fashionable promenade 
changes to the portales, where some hundreds of dames 
and gallants form into two dense lines, from which, when 
once entangled, you can hardly extricate yourself ; and 
continue defiling up and down with monotonous regular- 
ity and at a funeral pace, for half an hour or more ; while 
the dirty steps at the doorways of the shops opening under 
the arcades, upon which the beggars and lepers have 
been reclining during the day, are now, to your astonish- 
ment, crowded by luxuriously dressed females, chatting 
and smoking with their beaux. This is perfect Mexican 
— just as an acquaintance described to me his morning 
visit to a noble lady to whom the preceding evening he 
had been presented at the opera, where she shone in 
lace and diamonds — when he found her in the most 
complete dishabille ; all her French finery thrown aside ; 
without stockings, and eating tortillas and Chile, out of 
the common earthenware plate of the country. I must 
do the Mexican gallants the credit to say that some time 
ago a proposal was started to provide chairs. The offer, 
however, was indignantly refused by the belles ; and there 
they squat to this very day, according to the custom of 
their mothers and grandmothers. 

At this hour the mantilla was almost universally laid 
aside. The females of this country cannot be said to be 
distinguished for personal beauty. They are short in 
person, and seldom the possessors of elegant form or 
features. The eyes are commonly fine, and the majesty 
of their gait, which is remarkable, is characteristic of the 
admixture of Spanish and Indian blood. In their style 
of dress, they have now adopted the French fashion ; al- 
ways preserving the mantilla, however, as before men- 
tioned, in the earlier part of the day. 

I regret to see national costumes on the wane, here 
and elsewhere ; most following the vile fashions of France 



MEXICO. 



115 



and England : and this fancy extends itself in many cases 
to the trappings of the horses, as well as to those of the 
rider ; and not a few of the young Mexicans now use the 
English saddle, instead of the high Mameluke saddle and 
furniture of their fathers. 

It is evident that the lamentable effects of the political 
state of the country, and the constant struggle between 
parties for mastery, are felt throughout the whole struc- 
ture of society. There is no frankness and no forgive- 
ness between those who are for the moment in power, 
and those who have in any way shown favour to another 
modification of the constitution, or abetted other rulers, 
The instant that the struggle is at an end by the defeat 
of one party the other takes advantage of its victory to 
crush its humble adversary by confiscation, exile, and 
domestic oppression. 

Unhappy Mexico ! No sooner has a government 
seemed to be fairly seated, and felt itself called to exer- 
cise authority, and to enforce the laws, than some discon- 
tented partisan runs off to a distance from the capital, gets 
a band of malecontents together, sets up a u grito" or 
bark, to give warning that something is brewing; follows 
it up in due time by a proniinciamiento against the existing 
rulers ; proposes a modification of the constitution ; and, 
collecting an army, makes a dash at the metropolis. Per- 
haps, as was the fate of Canalizza's party, while we were 
in the country, he gets beaten on his way, and running 
abroad to escape the vengeance of his conqueror, leaves 
his adherents to make their peace as w 7 ell as they may : 
perhaps, like the hero of the day, Santa Anna, he suc- 
ceeds, and gets possession of the presidential chair, to be 
kicked out in his turn, without a shadow of doubt, sooner 
or later. It would fill a volume, and be a perfect jest- 
book, to give a history of all the changes experienced by 
this country since the expulsion of the Spaniards ; and 
the real intentions, ends, and characters of those by 
whom they have been brought about. 

The most serious evil is, that in this state of affairs 
nothing can be accounted stable. The sound principles 



116 



MEXICO. 



of government, perchance professed by a party most 
frequently perish with those who upheld them. You 
have read the wise intentions published to the world by 
this or that ephemeral president and his government, 
with regard to general tolerance, and the introduction of 
those principles of popular education and of internal pol- 
icy, which can alone render the Mexicans capable of self- 
government. You have heard of the excellence of the 
police : the energy with which order was restored upon 
the public roads: of summary justice being inflicted upon 
those who transgressed the law. I should lay it down as 
a rule, that you never need believe more than a quarter 
of that which you might be led to infer from the inflated 
style and mendacious language of whatever is published 
here ; but yet there may have been some foundation for 
what was asserted at such a date — at the same time that 
I would assure you, that the greatest probability exists of 
there not being a single word of truth in the statement, 
when applied to the real position of affairs, six months 
after. How was it when we were in Mexico? Santa 
Anna, a man of but little genius or talent, but cleverer 
than those about him in the low arts of intrigue, and into 
whose well-laid traps more than one old associate had 
fallen 3 was at the head of the reform government as pres- 
ident. The preceding year, General Duran had at- 
tempted to get up a revolution in favour of the so- 
called %i privileged classes." This year Canalizza had 
run off to the eastward in the manner I have described ; 
and, under what patriotic cry I forget, had issued a pro- 
nunciamiento, proposing to set up a counter government, 
according to the custom of the country. If I mistake 
not, General Bravo was down in the southwest, with the 
same intentions. The vice president, Gomez Ferias, was 
at couteau tire with the president ; and the latter had, 
under the veil of leave of absence from the capital, 
for the restoration of his health, gone off in a very bad 
humour, to pout at his estate near Jalapa ; where the gen- 
eral belief was, that he was brewing some mischief of 
his own, in favour of the army and the church, both of 
which were decidedly under a cloud in the actual state 



MEXICO. 



117 



of things. The latter especially began to tremble for its 
wealth, which the necessitous federation considered in 
the light of a lawful prize. 

The surmise was right, as the event showed ; for not 
long after, the wily president himself was pleased to set 
up his " bark," and abjuring the reform party, on whose 
shoulders he had climbed to power, made a run for the 
capital, beat his old friends, and throwing himself into 
the arms of the "privileged classes," was again elected 
president. 

Since that time another "grito" has been given by the 
Zacatecanos, who revolted again, under favour of that 
pet cry of the giddy multitude in the age in which we 
live — reform ! and getting together six thousand civicos 
or militia, and thirty-two pieces of artillery, defended their 
city. Santa Anna's star again prevailed ; and he beat 
them also. Durango then gave him a little more trouble ; 
and now Texas, with its unruly colonists, has called him 
to the north. He may chance to hear some other dog 
" barking" in the capital before he gets back. Is not this 
laughable ? But to return to the time of oue visit. 

The more enlightened party, consisting of those who 
were averse to the ignorant bigotry of their fellow-citi- 
zens, and desirous of introducing the more enlightened 
policy of the United States or Europe, were quite in 
disgrace ; their chiefs exiled, and themselves under the 
surveillance of the party in power. Their schemes had 
perished with them : education was discouraged ; jeal- 
ousy and hatred of foreigners carried to a ridiculous pitch, 
and the administration of justice most infamously abused. 

The popular party, having the upper hand, was, as else- 
where, tender of the lives of its near relatives and asso- 
ciates in prison. Seven hundred and thirty criminals 
crowded the Acordari, the principal jail of Mexico. 
There had not been an execution for three years. The 
promptitude with which eight out of ten miscreants, who 
had robbed the house of a European merchant in the 
city, were seized and executed some years before, owing 
to the firmness of one or two magistrates, and the author- 



118 MEXICO. 

ity of the English consul general, had neither been for- 
gotten nor forgiven by the people and present govern- 
ment. 

The transportation of criminals to the presidios of So- 
nora and California, was known to be a perfect farce ; 
as, however they might set out, they were never know T n 
to arrive there — unless they chose. Assassinations were 
frequent in the city ; and to meet a bleeding body 
carried dangling from a litter, was no unusual event. A 
murder took place in the very house where we lodged. 
Thousands of drunken and gambling leperos lay about the 
churches and piazzas of the city. 

Safety to person or property on the public roads — that 
was most doubtful. Many were robbed within a stone- 
cast of the gates ; and the diligence from Vera Cruz 
was, for a number of weeks successively, pillaged, as a 
matter of course, in the Pinal between Pueblo and Mex- 
ico, or near Perote. 

After the defeat of Canalizza, the villages were hardly 
safe, such was the number of lawless ruffians dispersed 
about the country to the eastward : and all this was 
winked at by the government. What a blessing a Bona- 
parte would be for Mexico ! 

In matters of religion, nothing could be more bigoted 
and intolerant than the reform government of the coun- 
try. The Roman Catholic religion in its blindest and 
most revolting form, was the only one tolerated by law ; 
and whatever there may be in other Roman Catholic 
countries, here there would seem to be no medium be- 
tween the grossest and most debasing superstition and 
idolatry, and skepticism and infidelity.* The few Protes- 
tant residents are not permitted to have a place of wor- 
ship ; and were it not stipulated by the treaty with Great 
Britain, they would not be allowed a place of sepulture 
for their dead. 

* It is said that there are five hundred and fifty secular, and sixteen 
hundred and forty-six regular clergy in the capital ; that in twenty-three 
monasteries there are twelve hundred individuals : and in fifteen con- 
vents, about two thousand souls, of which nine hundred are professed 
nuns. See " Notes on Mexico." 



MEXICO. 



119 



It was now the Holy Week. For several days pre- 
vious to Palm Sunday, many preparations had been made 
for the coming solemnities. 

The surface of the canals of Chalco and Izstacalco, 
which enter the city from the Paseo de las Vigas, was 
daily crowded with canoes, laden with the most beautiful 
flowers, the produce of the chinampas, or floating gar- 
dens of the Indians, on the border of the lakes. The 
great market was filled with palm branches, and all the 
altars and shrines of the city were perfumed with the 
sweet fragrance of the bouquets with which they were 
tastefully adorned. 

The fruit stalls under the arcades, and in the different 
plazas, and the innumerable pulquerias, were decorated 
in the same manner. The love of flowers is as marked 
among the Indians at this day, as at the time of the con- 
quest. 

On the earlier days of the week, the interest of the 
scene thickened hour by hour. A large proportion of 
the population of the valley repaired to the city ; and the 
streets were crowded with all classes, from the poor half- 
naked Indian of the pure Ottomie or the Mexican race, 
whose sole covering was a dingy wollen or goatskin 
blanket, and straw hat, jacket, and calico pantaloons 
reaching to the knee, to the wealthy paysano, or country 
gentleman, whose costly apparel might be valued at 
upward of five hundred dollars. About the evening of 
Wednesday, the scene on the Plaza Mayor, in front of 
the cathedral, baffles all description. It forms at present 
one of the finest squares in the world ; and were it not 
for the intrusion of the Parian, the large ungainly pile 
of building in one angle, it would be perhaps without 
rival. 

The cathedral, a noble and stately structure with two 
ornamented towers, rises to the east ; the splendid palace 
of the viceroy on the north ; the house of Cortez, and a 
number of equally palatial buildings to the south ; and a 
range of fine edifices, with a basement of lofty arcades, 
to the west. The removal of the circular balustrade, 



120 



MEXICO. 



the amphitheatre, and the equestrian statue of Charles 
the Fourth, has left the range of the eye over the broad 
tesselated pavement of the spacious area without ob- 
struction. 

At the close of the day in question, a portion of the 
area in front of the portales or arcades, and before the 
palace, appeared covered by slight erections of bamboo 
framework thatched by matting, and shut in by a pro- 
fusion of green branches and palm leaves. The more 
spacious were devoted to the sale of refreshments, and 
liquors of various kinds — lemonade, pinade, a liquor 
called chea, and pulque ; or for that of dulces, for which 
the city is celebrated. They not unfrequently formed a 
booth of twelve or fourteen feet in length, with seats and 
tables for the use of the customers. The smaller served 
as temporary shops for the retail of trifles of every de- 
scription — confectionary and fruits, ornaments, or articles 
of apparel. The whole were most tastefully adorned 
with bouquets of flowers, and at night illuminated with 
lamps, tapers, and torches. The trade of the fair — for 
fair it was — seemed to be chiefly in the hands of Indians, 
or those in whom the Indian blood predominated. 

The crowd thickened, and the bustle in the plaza in- 
creased every hour. The incessant sound of the innu- 
merable bells, and the rolling of carriages, were really 
fatiguing to the ear. But, when the cathedral clock tolled 
the hour of ten, on Holy Thursday, a change came over 
the scene. The regular shops were shut, not a bell was 
to be heard. The carriages of every description dis- 
appeared from the streets ; not a horse or mule was to 
be descried ; but innumerable crowds of both sexes, and 
of all classes, rich and poor, were seen intermingling on 
the same level, and pouring, morning and evening, in one 
unbroken stream through the thoroughfares, and under 
the portales. They clustered by hundreds about the 
doors of the churches ; and by thousands — yes, tens of 
thousands — on the Plaza Mayor. 

All the damas of the city, dressed in black, and 
shrouded in their mantillas, repaired on foot from church 



MEXICO. 121 

to church, according to the fashion which enjoins them 
to visit as many as possible, within the prescribed time of 
humiliation. 

This state of things lasted for forty-eight hours. In 
the principal churches, the high altars were despoiled of 
their rich load of ornaments, or completely veiled by 
dark-coloured drapery ; and the organs were as mute as 
the bells : while in all others, constant illumination, and 
the display of gold, silver, and tawdry ornaments, was 
fatiguingly splendid. 

But do not deceive yourself : though there was an ab- 
sence of many of the ordinary sounds, the city was not 
silent. The trample of thousands of feet — the march of 
stately and interminable processions — and the hum and 
clamour of innumerable voices filled the ear ; both in the 
ordinary tones of conversation, and exerted to their ut- 
most pitch, as they energetically, yet lovingly called 
the attention of the passing to their commodities. 44 Aqui 
hayjuiles T\ " Here's your sorts ! white fish !" bellowed 
one. 44 Palo grande, mi alma! pato grande, venga 
listed P 44 A great duck ! oh my soul, a great duck — 
come and buy V responded another. 

You may further understand that the interiors of the 
churches were no more the theatre of silence than the 
streets without, when I tell you that in addition to the 
incessant stream of worshippers which poured along 
their pavement from one door to another the livelong 
day — in many of them, waltzes, boleros, and polonaises, 
from harpsichord or organ — were the accompaniment of 
the hasty devotion of the passing multitudes. 

All these sounds you may conceive, for they were after 
all but ordinary ; but it is a moral impossibility for you 
to imagine the extraordinary hubbub produced by the 
sound of thousands of rattles, which filled the air from 
morning to night. They were to be seen in the hands of 
every individual of the lower classes, and of many of 
the upper ; of every form and material, bone, wood, and 
even silver ; from the size of a child's plaything, to one 
which would outgrind half a dozen of our watchmen's 



122 



MEXICO. 



rattles, and required both hands to wield. Many of the 
stalls in the Piaza Mayor were devoted to their sale 
alone ; while others dealt in nothing but effigies of Judas 
Iscariot, varying in size and monstrosity, from a doll of 
a foot long, to the size of the human figure. Hundreds 
of them were seen tied together by the neck, and dang- 
ling from long poles by twenty and thirty in a cluster, 
over the heads of the mob. 

At the corner of the market, nearest the plaza, where 
it happened that the principal rattle venders had en- 
sconced themselves, if you shut your eyes, you might 
imagine yourself after sunset in the depth of a forest in 
the Floridas, where a few million grasshoppers, cicada, 
and wood bugs were at their serenade. 

And so it continued from sunrise to sunset. I believe 
myself within bounds when I assert that we saw fifty 
thousand people collected in the great square morning 
and evening. Sometimes the mass was so dense that 
the booths were threatened with an overturn ; and you 
were glad to gain the step of one of the palaces, from 
which you might look over the sea of heads at your ease, 
and descry the bunches of Judases hideously besmeared 
with red and blue paint, bobbing about over the level of 
the multitude. Then would come a stir at the other end 
of the square : and, with a long-drawn train of crucifixes, 
decorated banners and tapers, the clergy of one of the 
great churches to the westward would defile into the 
crowded area ; clearing their uninterrupted way, as 
though by magic, to the great entrance of the cathedral, 
through a press where, a moment before, a dog could 
hardly have wormed his way. Some of these proces- 
sions on the afternoon of Good Friday were more gor- 
geous and splendid in their aspect than any I had seen in 
Italy itself, and apparently interminable. They were 
revolting from the hideous and disgusting representations 
which they comprised, of the sacred scenes of the Pas- 
sion. During the passage, the whole mass of human be- 
ings collected on the Plaza Mayor remained kneeling in 
silence. To what divinity ? My brain swims with the 
recollection of the press and glare, and the confused and 



MEXICO. 



123 



intermingling pictures presented before us during these 
two days ; and I am totally unable to disentangle from 
the mass any connected event or spectacle worth detail- 
ing. The whole city seemed to reel under the influence 
of phrensy, and we were obliged to reel with it. To see 
as much as we could, and to give no offence, were, I 
own, our principal objects. I remember an old woman 
who happened to be my neighbour during the passage 
of one of the processions, who perhaps observed that I 
was not as ready with a genuflection as the bystanders, 
shaking a Judas, the size of a child of two years old, 
at me, by the scuff of the neck, and muttering to me 
with a scowl of hatred, " See ! here is a countryman of 
yours !" 

It was a rebuke which I felt I merited — for what did I 
there ? 

During this season every church and monastery had 
its peculiar services from morning to night. In the ca- 
thedral I heard several ; and the music, accompanied by 
a small orchestra, was good as to composition, though in- 
differently performed. Within that noble structure I 
remarked nothing in the general style of the rites and 
services of a particularly undignified or revolting charac- 
ter: but to describe the orgies enacted in the generality 
of the other churches could but be disgusting to you. 
The scenes of the Passion were played and turned into 
comedy ; while waltzes and contradances were played 
over the bier, on which the effigy of our Saviour was 
laid out in state. On the evening of that day, after ma- 
king the round of eighteen or twenty churches, we re- 
turned to our quarters, thoroughly fatigued and out of 
spirits. 

At an early hour on the Saturday, preparations were 
made to terminate the season of humiliation. What hu- 
miliation ! On going into the streets we saw the Judases 
— which I omitted to tell you, were, in fact, fireworks so 
disguised — hanging by thousands over the centre of the 
streets, and to the fronts of the houses. In the Plaza 
Mayor, the booths had entirely disappeared ; troops 



124 



MEXICO. 



were drawn up before the palace, with the artillery in 
advance ; and it was with the utmost difficulty I could 
make my way into the cathedral. Every part of its 
pavement was crowded. 

I had hardly made my way to the high altar, when the 
deep bell of the church tolled half past nine, and the lofty 
roof and the impending dome resounded with the burst 
of sounds which instantly pervaded the great city from 
one end to another ! Within — the trumpet and full organ 
mingled their burst with the clang of the great bells ; 
the dark veil which had shrouded the high altar parted 
and rolled back, displaying the gorgeous pile of ornament 
which it had concealed. Without — the artillery thun- 
dered in the square — the bells of every church and con- 
vent through the city clanged incessantly, and were an- 
swered by those in the towns and villages far and wide 
— the Judases exploded by thousands, and the multitude 
hailed the conclusion of the Holy Week ! 

Before an hour was at end, the streets resounded to 
the roll of the carriages, and the sounds of innumerable 
hoofs ; the calzadas and canals were crowded with In- 
dians returning to their homes; the buyer and the dealer 
repaired to their traffic ; the idler to his vices, and the 
gambler to the monte table. The robber, exulting un- 
der his lightened conscience, betook himself to his stand 
in the pine forest, to commence a fresh career of rapine ; 
and the assassin to the resumption of his cherished 
schemes of blood and vengeance. The reopening of the 
opera was publicly announced, and the citizens joyfully 
anticipated the recommencement of bullfights. 

And this is Christianity ! and the worship of the only 
true God ! to introduce which, in place of existing su- 
perstitions, the blood of millions of the blind heathen of 
this vast region was shed by its Spanish conquerors ! The 
plea for all the cruelties exercised against the aborigines 
was their idolatry, and their inhuman sacrifices ; and the 
most exaggerated statements, suited to excite the horror 
and extinguish the compassion of the bigoted Catholics 
of Europe, were found necessary, and were made, to pal* 



MEXICO. 



125 



liate, in some degree, the undeniable enormities perpe- 
trated upon the Indians. 

The detestable character of the ignorant idolatry in 
exercise among the ancient race needs no demonstration ; 
yet, at the present day, with the exception of the single 
item of human sacrifice as a part of the religious system, 
it may well be asked, by what has it been supplanted — 
fewer and more dignified divinities? purer rites? a less 
degrading superstition? less disgusting ignorance ? a bet- 
ter system of morality ? Who will dare assert it ? 

As to the charge of the inhuman rites, and the bloody 
festivals of the later generations of the Aztecs — the mag- 
nitude of which, as asserted by the Roman Catholic his- 
torians, is almost incredible — no one offers to palliate 
them. 

You are shown w T ith obsequious eagerness the huge 
round Stone of Sacrifices ; you are told to mark the hol- 
low for the head of the victim, and the groove which 
carried off his blood ; your ears tingle when they are 
filled w 7 ith the number of those who are supposed to 
have been immolated upon its carved surface. You turn 
and see the huge and detestable figure of the idol god- 
dess Teoyamiqui, before whom, as Spanish historians 
relate, the hearts of the victims were torn out : yes ! but 
officious cicerone leads you to the court of the Domini- 
can convent, and points to the broad perforated stone, 
where the hundreds and thousands of poor benighted, 
ignorant heathen, expired at the stake amid smoke and 
flame. No one reminds you that about the time when 
the idolatrous worship of the Aztecs was extirpated in 
Mexico, the same Inquisition, then in its first flush of 
power, burned eighteen thousand victims at the stake, in 
the Old World ; and consigned two hundred and eight 
thousand to infamy and punishment scarcely better than 
death itself. The simple fact is, that at the present day, 
dark as we consider it, the Roman Catholicism of Eu- 
rope is light, when compared to that established in this 
country, and practised by its inhabitants. 

A change of names — a change of form and garb for 
the idols — new symbols — altered ceremonials — another 

l2 



126 



MEXICO. 



race of priests — so much and no more has been effected 
for the Indians. 

The change was easily made. The ancient supersti- 
tion abounded with fasts, feasts, and penances ; so did 
the new. The whole system of the aboriginal religious 
hierarchy bears a singular resemblance to that w 7 hich 
took its place under the domination of Spain. Even the 
monk found his vocation excite no surprise ; the exist- 
ence of regular orders of celibates of both sexes, whose 
lives were devoted to the service of certain among their 
gods, seems indisputable. 

With the Indians, Teotl, the unknown God — i{ he by 
whom we live? as he was termed — he whom they 
never represented in idol form — is still the Supreme Be- 
ing under the name of Dios. They continue to adore 
the god Quetzalcoatl — the Feathered Serpent, under the 
name of San Thomas. It is indifferent to them, whether 
the evil spirit is called Diablo, or Tlacatecolototl. They 
retain their superstition, their talismans, their charms ; 
and as they were priest led under the old system, so they 
are kept in adherence to the church of Rome, by the 
continual bustle of the festivals, and ceremonials, and 
processions of the church. But as to change of heart 
and purpose — a knowledge of the true God as " a Spirit, 
who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth ;" a sense 
of their degraded and fallen state as men, and an ac- 
quaintance with the truths of the true gospel ; its appli- 
cation to their individual state, and its influence upon 
their lives and characters, they are as blind and ignorant 
as their forefathers. 

I should not think I was hazarding much, were I to 
say that all classes, high and low, participate in this dark- 
ness, to a degree which is truly almost incredible ; and 
the proofs are the countenance and support given to the 
degrading system, with its revolting, childish, and super- 
stitious ceremonies ; the low state of public and private 
morals; and the supine and contented ignorance, which 
they cherish with a jealousy that would be ludicrous* 
were it not lamentable* 



MEXICO. 



127 



Among other signs of the weakness of the existing 
government, the neglect and decay of many of the public 
institutions are not to be overlooked. 

The importance of the mint to the revenues of the 
country, renders its maintenance an object of state pol- 
icy ; but the university, the museum, the public library, 
the splendid mineria, or schools of the mines; many of 
the noble hospitals of Spanish foundation, and the acad- 
emy of arts, were, at the time of our visit, in a state of 
general neglect shameful to the government and people. 
The botanic garden, which occupies an interior court of 
the palace, is also but indifferently maintained under the 
care of an old badger of a functionary, who will make 
you up a packet of the most vulgar and ordinary garden 
seeds, and charge you fifty dollars for it with the best 
assurance of conscience in the world. 

But to go into the details of these matters would be to 
write a book instead of a letter. 

Though in the last degree of confusion, the museum, 
which is in the palace, presents a scene of great interest ; 
as, besides a multitude of rare and unique works illus- 
trative of the history of the country, and a great quantity 
of the most curious antiquities, it contains many of the 
most remarkable records of the conquest. But all are 
in the most appalling disorder — a disorder which has, 
by-the-by, favoured numerous thefts. The same obser- 
vation applies to the state of the more massive antiquities 
which have been, from time to time, brought to light ; 
such as the Stone of Sacrifice, the Feathered Serpent, 
the idol Goddess of War, and many others, all of which 
have been described at large a hundred times. There 
they lie, half covered with dust, dirt, and rubbish, in a 
corner of the court of the university ; to whose area the 
fine bronze equestrian statue of Charles the Fourth has 
also been exiled, by the levelling, king-hating repub- 
licans. 

The great Toltec Calendar is seen to more advantage, 
from its being inserted in a conspicuous position into the 
wall of the cathedral, which, I have elsewhere mentioned, 



128 



MEXICO. 



is built on the site of the principal teocalli of the Mexi- 
cans, dedicated to the god Mexitli.* 

Wonder has often been expressed, why so few rem- 
nants of the ancient city are to be found, and how com- 
pletely the vestiges of its existence have been swept 
from the large area which it once occupied. The site 
of a few of the principal buildings is known ; and here 
and there, fragments have been unearthed, and this is 
all. That the greater proportion of the dwellings should 
have disappeared, no one need marvel, when it is recol- 
lected that they were merely built of layers of unburnt 
clay ; that the numerous canals were filled up with the 
ruins ; and, moreover, that the mode resorted to by 
Cortez, according to his own account, in gaining posses- 
sion of the city, was literally to level every house and 
street as soon as it was won. But still I am satisfied 
that these causes, however plausible, are not sufficient 
to account for the fact altogether ; but that a most sedu- 
lously jealous and concerted system of destruction and 
inhumation must have been pursued by the conquerors 
with reference to all relics of the ancient race. 

It may be supposed, that a people that proves itself 
so little disposed to appreciate treasures of this nature, 
would show but little ardour in their being brought to 
light and preserved ; and whatever is discovered, is dis- 
covered by chance. Foreigners have occasionally insti- 
tuted a search in suitable localities, and have made valu- 
able discoveries ; but the existing law, which prohibits 
the exportation of antiquities under any pretence, has 
put a stop even to their labours, 

Indeed, at all times, the inhabitants of this city, even 
when most civilized, and numbering many men of educa- 

* The first great temple named in the history of the kings, is that in 
the reign of the sixth monarch, Axayacatl, in 1470, who erected a tower 
of nine floors in honour of the Creator. The seventh king, Tizoc, col- 
lected materials for a very great temple, which his son, the eighth mon- 
arch, finished ; when, Clavigero states, 8,000,000 of people came to the 
dedication ; and all the prisoners made during four years, in number 
72,344, were ranged in two files, a mile and a half long, and were sacri- 
ficed. This was probably the great one which formed the main citadel 
of the Mexicans at the taking of the city. 



MEXICO. 



129 



tion, have been singularly apathetic with regard to the 
vestiges of the ancient people upon whose seat of em- 
pire they had established themselves by the right of 
conquest. For two entire centuries the same insane 
and bigoted spirit of w T anton destruction, which the 
Spanish historians show to have influenced the con- 
querors, and to have caused the annihilation of much 
that was curious and valuable, seems to have possessed 
their descendants to a very late epoch, if not to the pres- 
ent day. 

There is ample proof of this, in a pamphlet* now be- 
coming rare, published by De Gama, a Spanish savant, 
in 1792, to give a description of the two most remarka- 
ble of the Toltec antiquities, the Goddess of War, and the 
Sacrificial Stone, both of which were discovered accident- 
ally two years previous. 

The goddess Teoyamiqui, or Cohuatlicue,f as De 
Gama calls her, is a colossal figure about nine feet high, 
hewn out of a solid block of basalt. The breadth is 
about five feet, and it is three feet in thickness. It is 
sculptured on all sides, and even underneath the feet, 
having evidently been suspended at a height from the 
ground, by two projections at the sides. The whole 
configuration is the most hideous and deformed that the 
fancy can paint, being a mass of serpents of all sizes, 
with claws and tusks of ravenous beasts ornamented 
with human hearts and sculls. 

The Stone of Sacrifices is a cylindrical mass of por- 
phyry, of twenty-five feet in circumference, covered 
both on the surface and sides with sculpture in relief. 
It is strongly urged that this was not the altar implied 
by the popular name, but one of the stones termed te- 
malacatl, on which gladiatorial combats between prison- 
ers of rank and the Mexican warriors took place on 

* Descripcion y cronologica de los piedras con ocasion del nuevo, 
empedrado que se esta formendo en la plaza principal de Mejico se hal- 
laron en alia. Ano de 1790, &c. — por Don Antonio de Leon y Gama. 

t Two different personages, by-the-by. Teoyamiqui was the wife of 
Huitzipoctli, the god of war ; while Cohuatlicue was the goddess of 
flowers. — Humboldt' 's Researches, vol, L, p. 266. 



130 



MEXICO. 



solemn occasions. I have but little hesitation in assert- 
ing that the groove in the upper surface formed no part 
of the original design. 

It has been surmised that this is the ".exceedingly 
great stone" which was discovered by the Mexicans as 
late as the reign of Montezuma, when it is recorded that 
it was brought to the capital with great labour and pomp 
for the sacrifices : on which occasion 12,210 victims 
were immolated. 

It may fairly be credited that many of these antiquities 
were the work of a people anterior to the Aztecs. 

No doubt can be entertained but that their systems for 
the computation of time were transmitted to them from 
the Toltecs. 

The great Calendar Stone is a vast mass of basaltic 
porphyry, twenty-four tons weight, covered with the 
most symmetrical and admirable hieroglyphics. 

Two several calendars were in use among the abo- 
rigines, namely: the Reckoning of the Sun, used for civil 
purposes, and the Calendar of the Moon, employed to 
reguHte their religious festivals.* 

The Reckoning of the Sun was briefly as follows.f 
The civil year consisted of three hundred and sixty four 
days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, 
with exception of the last, to which the five odd days 
were added. But evidently knowing that the tropical 
year exceeded their year by six hours, they, after the 
termination of each cycle of fifty-two years, added thir- 
teen days before they recommenced the first month of 
the following cycle, and thus adjusted their time. 
Each of the eighteen months has a certain name from 
some natural object characteristic of the particular 
season which it indicated, or from some particular 
festival or employment in which they were engaged at 

* Their numerals were indicated as far as nineteen by round dots ; 
the number twenty had a particular sign, as well as 400 and 8000, and 
this is all that is known of their system of notation. 
, f See Humboldt, M'Culloh, &c, &c. 



MEXICO. 



131 



such times. The twenty days were also named, and 
like the months, had their hieroglyphic sign. Every 
fifth day throughout the month was a market day. In 
recording the events of their history, the precise cycle 
of fifty-two years in which a given circumstance oc- 
curred, was first indicated, and not the century, as with 
us, and consequently the cycles were numbered from a 
certain epoch. 

The year of the cycle in which an event happened 
was not indicated by its number, but by a more complex 
mode, which I will briefly explain. The cycle of fifty- 
two years was subdivided into four equal parts of thir- 
teen years each, called tlalpilli ; one of four hieroglyphic 
signs — Tochli, a rabbit — Acatl, a reed — Tecpatl, a flint 
» — and Calli, a house, were applied to each year in suc- 
cession, throughout the fifty-two ; and thus in every 
cycle there would be thirteen years designated by each 
sign. The number of each of the thirteen years com- 
posing each of the four tlalpilli was designated by dots ; 
and the Mexican in pointing out the year of any event, 
would first name the number of the cycle, say two — 
then the number of the tlalpilli in such a cycle, say four 
— then the number of the year in such a tlalpilli, say 
three, and then the hieroglyphic sign of the year. So 
cycle . . , — tlalpilli .... , — year . . . , — 
and the sign Acatl, will indicate the forty-second year, 
in the second cycle of their history. Each succeeding 
fourth year, coming under the sign of the rabbit, was 
called a '* divine year ;" and, at the termination of the 
cycle of fifty-two years, a solemn astronomical festival 
was held. 

The Reckoning of the Moon was yet more complex, 
and I will only allude to its main features. Their u reli- 
gious year" was composed of a series of periods of thir- 
teen days, alternating with the hieroglyphics of the twenty 
days of the month in the civil year, by which a cycle of 
two hundred and sixty days is formed. 

Seventy-three cycles of two hundred and sixty days 
amounted exactly to fifty-two years, so that their great 



132 



MEXICO. 



religious cycle terminated and began with the civil cycle 
described above. A larger cycle of 2340 days was fur- 
ther produced by the introduction of a series of hiero- 
glyphics, nine in number, and called the Lords of the 
Night; eight of which, with the addition of one of the 
smaller cycles of two hundred and sixty, would amount 
to the civil cycle of fifty-two years. 

From whatever source the ancient people of these 
countries derived their correct knowledge of the revolu- 
tions of the sun and moon, and their peculiar astronomi- 
cal system, the analogies which have been detected be- 
tween them and with those of Asia are most conclusive 
as to the fact of their having had one common origin. 

The week of five days, the subdivision of the larger 
cycles, the nomenclature of the years, the regulation of 
festivals according to half lunations, the method of inter- 
calation, the proportion between the number of years of 
the cycle and the intercalary period — all lead one to 
believe that the Mexican astronomical system, as well 
as those of the Chaldeans, Persians, and Hindoos, was 
based upon the principles of antediluvian science, the 
knowledge of which was common to the descendants of 
Noah, in the centuries preceding the confusion of tongues 
and general dispersion of the human race. 

But to return for an instant to De Gama. We learn 
from him that the monstrous goddess was discovered in 
consequence of an excavation made in the Plaza Mayor, 
on the 13th of August, 1790, exactly, to a day, two hun- 
dred and sixty- nine years after the capture of the city 
by Cortez. The head lay at the depth of only one vara 
and a third below the surface, and the foot but one single 
vara or less. It was the 25th of September before it 
was finally extricated. On the 17th of December fol- 
lowing, the Sacrificial Stone was found, at the depth of 
but a foot and a half below the pavement. Other relics 
were discovered subsequently. Some of the largest 
w r ere instantly buried again, and among the number, 
those named. Others were destroyed ; and no doubt 
seems to exist, but that at this very hour, at a very small 



MEXICO. 



133 



depth in this central part of the city, a vast quantity of 
these colossal and curious remains of a forgotten people 
lie hidden from the day. 

So little was De Gama's admirable treatise upon these 
monuments understood or appreciated, that he had but 
one hundred and seventy-two subscribers for his pam- 
phlet of one hundred and sixteen pages ; and it is doubt- 
ful w hether he found sufficient encouragement to pub- 
lish a second treatise upon the Calendar and other mon- 
uments subsequently found, as he hints his intention of 
doing, in case that the sale of his first adventure covered 
the expense of the impression and the plates. 

He gives (page 110) a description of a cluster of most 
curiously sculptured rocks, discovered in the Cerro of 
Chapultepec, in the year 1775, while labourers were 
carrying on certain excavations. After a most careful 
examination, he conceived them to form part of an astro- 
nomical contrivance, by which the ancient Mexicans 
were enabled to determine the meridian, the exact time 
of sunrise and sunset at the equinoxes, and thus the 
true time throughout the year. In recording, on his next 
return to Chapultepec, the utter annihilation of these 
valuable relics of an extraordinary people, he feelingly 
exclaims, " How many precious monuments of antiquity 
have thus perished through ignorance !"* 



LETTER VII. 

Our allotted period of sojourn in the country, which 
we now felt to be lamentably brief, passed swiftly away 
amid the excitement of our position ; and, urged by the 
feeling that necessity would compel us to leave Mexico 
at the commencement of May, we prepared, early in 

* Quantos preciosos monumentos de la antiqiiedad per falta de intel- 
ligensia, habran parecido an esta manera ! 

M 



134 



PENON VIEJO. 



April, to make an excursion of a few days in the enVi* 
rons of the capital. 

Accordingly, on the 8th of that month, for the especial 
solace and service of the invalid of the party, a huge un- 
wieldy Mexican stage carriage, swinging to and fro upon 
its scaffolding, drove majestically up to the door of the 
Gran Sociedad, at the heels of ten mules, furnished with 
faded trappings and harness, and with tail pieces of brass- 
studded leather, shaped exactly like a beaver's trowel. 
M'Euen and myself on horseback, backed by our two 
equeries Garcias and Mariano, (the latter a new ac- 
quisition,) acted as escort. All were, of course, armed 
to the teeth, and felt very valiant. Two mozos presided 
over the mules. 

The coach was, by-the-by, not so much amiss ; for it 
was of a strength of construction, which might have 
made it available as a temporary citadel, on a pinch — 
and once put in motion, it went lumbering over the pave- 
ment, and out of the gate of San Lazaro, to the new 
calzada, leading towards the mountains beyond the 
southern limits of the Lake Tezcuco. 

The morning was splendidly bright, and the air of 
matchless purity. 

The causeway runs straight towards the volcanic mass, 
called the Perion Viejo, situated on the ancient shore of 
the lake to the south, and which is to be distinguished 
from the other penon of similar origin, containing the 
hot baths, and lying between the city and the lake. 

For many miles we continued by its aid to traverse a 
range of wide-spread flats, from which the waters of the 
lake have long' retired, leaving a surface but indifferently 
calculated for cultivation, from the spongy character of 
the soil, and the carbonate of soda forming upon its sur- 
face. The higher portions are subjected to a rude system 
of drainage and agriculture; and numerous herds of 
cattle were scattered over it. 

We found Penon Viejo to be a huge discoloured mass 
of fused matter, abounding in caverns ; and displaying 
throughout the play of the fierce element, to whose 
action it owes its elevation from the abyss. 



LAKE TEZCUCO. 



135 



As we proceeded, one pile of volcanic hills after the 
other started into isolated prominence on our left, disen- 
tangling themselves from their neighbours, and from the 
more distant ranges, with which they had hitherto ap- 
peared to be connected. Cones, which from the roofs 
of the city had appeared to rise from one common ridge, 
we now discovered to be separated by broad strips of 
level marsh. I believe I forgot to mention among our 
excursions, one which we had made some time before, 
from the Hacienda San Antonio to the great group of 
volcanic hills beyond Mejicalzingo, which consists, as 
far as I could determine, of three truncated cones, rising 
progressively in bulk and height, one over the other, from 
the surface of the plain. On this occasion we had con- 
trived to scramble up the steep sides of the lowest, con- 
sisting of abrupt slopes covered with rotten scoria, and 
gained the brink of the crater, which in its present state 
forms a smooth, grass-covered bowl, of about a mile in 
circumference. 

After passing the Penon Viejo, we approached the 
foot of the volcanic cone of the Ajotla ; but then quitting 
the great calzada at Santa Martha, followed a track over 
the half-dried marshes at the southernmost extremity of 
Lake Tezcuco to the village of Santa Madalenda, on 
terra firma. 

As we rode in front of the old church and dark group of 
Italian cypress of the village, and, turning northward, 
advanced over a hilly tract of country, spotted by herds 
of cattle and haciendas, towards Chapingo, the views 
increased in beauty and interest at every step. Popo- 
catepetl, and its neighbour, now rose to the southward 
over the summits of the innumerable cones in the middle 
ground. Both were covered with snow to a far greater 
extent than on our arrival three w 7 eeks before ; and even 
the Ajusco appeared sprinkled to a considerable extent. 
The whole breadth of the lake was now interposed be- 
tween us and the city, and a most singular optical illusion 
was displayed from the effect of the mirage : the white 
edifices and coloured domes of the capital appearing 
afloat, like a fleet of snowy sails, upon the blue surface 



136 



THE LAKES. 



of the water, which seemingly extended far on the other 
side, up to the very base of the rock of Chapultepee, and 
of the mountains behind. The Penon de los Baiios ap- 
peared once more as an island ; and this, which was now 
a deceptive and unreal picture, was the fact three hun- 
dred years ago. 

The phenomena exhibited by the lakes of Mexico are 
extremely interesting. 

Though indisputably the hand of man has done much 
towards the altered state of things as far as regards the 
diminution of water in the lakes, yet it is probable that 
natural causes, tending to the same results, have been in 
operation for ages ; perhaps, ever since the day when 
the cessation of violent volcanic convulsions left the basin 
and table land of Mexico, with all its chaotic parts, fluid 
or solid, to the sway of the ordinary and more gentle 
operations of nature. 

It is improbable that there was ever a regular influx of 
water, from whatever source it may have proceeded, at 
all commensurate with the great evaporation which, 
under the influence of the climate, and the physical con- 
struction of the country, must always have taken place. 

Of the five lakes of Mexico — Tezcuco, Xochimilco, 
Chalco, Cristobal, and Zumpango — that of Tezcuco is 
the largest, the most central, the most impregnated with 
saline particles, and lies at the lowest level.* Not one 
of them possesses a natural outlet from the valley of Mex- 
ico ; and in case of the overflow of any of the four 
lakes, Tezcuco is the only reservoir into which they 
can disembogue themselves. The streams falling into 
Tezcuco, Xochimilco, and Cristobal, are so inconsider- 
able as to be of little or no account ; but both Chalco at 
the southern, and Zumpango at the northern extremity 
of the chain, receive streams of a considerable volume, 
calculated, under a combination of causes, to throw so 
large a body of water into their respective reservoirs, as 
to produce a most extraordinary overflow, and a con- 
sequent rise of the waters in Lake Tezcuco. Such, tra- 



* At the height of 7,468 feet above the sea. 



CHAPINGO. 



137 



dition states to have been the case on various occasions 
prior to the conquest ; and even since the seventeenth 
century, the waters of Tezcuco have risen to such a 
height, that the city has been greatly endangered by it, 
most of the streets on one occasion remaining many feet 
under water for between four and five years consecu- 
tively.* The pavement of the Plaza Major itself, the 
highest ground in the city of Mexico, is several feet lower 
than the surface of Lake Chalco. 

Nevertheless, such is the combined effect of the ex- 
traordinary evaporation from the dry and naked surface 
of the table land, raised above the clouds, and fully ex- 
posed to the sun's rays ; the diminished power of re- 
plenishment; the decreasing infiltration, from the de- 
struction of woods and forests both on the plains and 
the surrounding mountains, laying the unprotected soil 
bare to the action of the ardent sun and rarified air ; 
and lastly, the effect of the artificial means employed by 
the Spaniards two centuries ago, to carry off the super- 
abundant waters of the lake to the northward, that all 
the lakes have retired on every side into narrower limits, 
and the surface of Tezcuco in particular has become 
circumscribed far within its original bounds. 

The present shore is already 14,763 feet from the cen- 
tre of the city, which it once surrounded ; and on every 
side, as I have described, wide flats and marshy meadows 
mark its ancient bed. 

The great Hacienda of Chapingo, which we reached 
shortly afternoon, lies some miles distant from the shore 
of the lake, directly opposite Mexico. By the circuitous 
route w 7 e had taken, that city lay about nine leagues dis- 
tant, but as the bird flies, it could not have been more 
than eleven or twelve miles. The intendant of the ha- 
cienda, to whom we had brought a letter of introduction, 
was from home ; but we were courteously received and 
entertained by one of the upper domestics of this spa- 

* A.D. 1553, 1580, 1605-1607 were years of inundation ; and on 
June 20, 1627, the capital was laid under water from such a combination 
of causes, and remained so till the year 1634. 

M 2 



138 



HUEJUTLA. 



cious establishment ; breakfasting with uncommon zest 
after our preparatory ride of seven hours. 

The estate attached to the hacienda is one of the 
most princely and productive in the valley of Mexico. 
In old times it had belonged, with much valuable land 
on the same side of the lake, to the Jesuits. Later it 
came into possession of the Marquis Vibanco, and now 
appertains to the exiled General Moran. The dwelling 
house, though spacious, is hardly worthy of the size and 
construction of the adjoining offices ; among which the 
two troges, or barns, are distinguished for their vast 
size and massive architecture. The largest, which we 
rudely measured, forms one immense apartment of sev- 
enty yards in length, by twenty-two in breadth. They 
are calculated to hold the whole of the ample produce 
of maize and wheat yielded by the estate. The land is 
rendered extremely productive, by the excellent system 
of irrigation to which it is subjected. The water is con- 
veyed hither from the mountains to the east, by means 
of stone conduits. Ward computes the annual income 
derived from this property at 60,000 dollars. 

Leaving the carriage and the mules to find their way 
to the town of Tezcuco, at the distance of a short 
league, we got on horseback in the course of the after- 
noon, to visit some of the objects of interest in the 
neighbourhood. The frequent occurrence of deep fis- 
sures in the surface of the plain, compelled us to make a 
circuitous route, to gain the ancient but decayed town 
of Huejutla, now reduced to a mere Indian hamlet, while 
the large church erected by the Spaniards soon after the 
conquest, and its singular Aztec ruins, mark it to have 
been a place of considerable consequence both before 
and after that period. 

The church stands upon a raised platform, from which 
you descend to a second walled enclosure by a broad 
flight of steps. This enclosure is covered with sward, 
and overshadowed by seventeen noble olive trees, which 
tradition states to have been the first planted by the con- 
querors in New Spain. Their venerable appearance 
attests their great age. 



HUEJUTLA. 



139 



The Indian remains are various in their character ; 
but for the most part heaps of rubbish. The wall of the 
palace is, however, one of the greatest curiosities in the 
country. It is still of considerable extent ; and, where 
uninjured, seems to have been between twenty and thirty 
feet in height, and of six to eight feet in thickness. It 
is not built in a uniform manner, but varies in the form 
and distribution of the masonry at different points of ele- 
vation. About the mid height there is a layer of com- 
pact stonework, composed of long cylindrical masses, 
disposed with the circular ends outward. In following 
this wall for some distance to the eastward, it is found to 
abut suddenly upon a deep fissure or barranca, running 
east and west, and forming a natural defence on that 
side. The road crosses it by the celebrated arched 
bridge, concerning which antiquaries are divided in 
opinion ; the sanguine and hot headed insisting that, how- 
ever improbable, it is of genuine Indian construction, 
and formed a part of the original erections in its vicinity; 
at the same time that the cool and plodding deny the 
probability, and even assert the impossibility. It cer- 
tainly would be a singular anomaly, to find in this single 
instance, the principle of the arch so well developed, 
while in every part of the continent to the northward, 
and on the plateau of Mexico, you evidently see that the 
ancient architects were ignorant of the science and prin- 
ciple : but for all that, my impression after I had studied 
it in every part was, that there was as much to be said 
on one side as upon the other. It is of the rudest con- 
struction, far too much so to be Spanish in its origin ; and 
precisely of that acute form which, as it appears to me, 
would be the most natural for a timid architect, upon 
whose mind the truth of the principle had just dawned, 
to adopt in his first trials. The height above the bed of 
the barranca is about forty feet. A hunt after portable 
antiquities among the Indian huts was rewarded by the 
acquisition of an ugly monster of an idol in a sitting 
posture, delftly carved in a hard volcanic substance. 
He was perfect, with the exception of a corner of his 
mouth, into which the Indian who unearthed him had 



140 



TEZCOZINGO. 



driven the nose of his ploughshare, demolishing a few of 
his teeth ; and as he was pronounced worth carriage, he 
was henceforth, under the high-sounding name of Huit- 
zilipoctli, accommodated with a seat in the coach, by the 
side of his purchaser. 

We now turned our attention towards the conical 
mountain of Tezcozingo, an inferior spur of the great 
chain to the east ; and skirting the town of Tezcuco, 
bore off in that direction. The country exhibited many 
plantations of maguey, and the villages were interspersed 
with hedges of tall organ cactus. Long before we got 
to the church of La Navidad, which at a distance seemed 
close under the steep and pointed hill upon which the 
object of our search, the Bano de Montezuma, was situ- 
ated, it became apparent that night would overtake us 
in the midst of our excursion. But nothing daunted, we 
galloped forward over the great plain ; and under the 
direction of an Indian guide, whose assistance was se- 
cured at the last village, and crossing a deep barranca, 
we began to ascend the mountain through the scattered 
plantations of nopal and maguey. Fragments of pottery, 
and broken pieces of obsidian knives and arrows ; pieces 
of stucco, shattered terraces, and old walls, were thickly 
dispersed over its whole surface. We soon found farther 
advance on horseback impracticable ; and attaching our 
patient steeds to the nopal bushes, we followed our In- 
dian guide on foot ; scrambling upward, over rock and 
through tangled brushwood. On gaining the narrow 
ridge which connects the conical hill with one at the rear, 
we found the remains of a wall and causeway ; and a 
little higher, reached a recess, where, at the foot of a 
small precipice, overhung with Indian fig and grass, the 
rock had been wrought by hand into a flat surface of 
large dimensions. In this perpendicular wall of rock, a 
carved Toltec Calendar existed formerly; but the Indians 
finding the place visited occasionally by foreigners from 
the capital, took it into their heads that there must be a 
silver vein there ; and straightway set to work to find it, 
obliterating the sculpture, and driving a level beyond it 
into the hard rock for several yards. 



MONTEZUMA'S BATH. 



141 



From this recess, a few minutes' climb brought us to 
the summit of the hill. The sun was on the point of set- 
ting over the mountains on the other side of the valley, 
and the view spread beneath our feet was most glorious. 
The whole of the lake of Tezcuco, with the country and 
mountains on both sides, lay stretched before us. 

"But, however disposed, we dared not stop long to gaze 
and admire, but descending a little obliquely, soon came 
to the so-called bath, two singular basins, of perhaps two 
feet and a half diameter, cut into a bastionlike, solid 
rock, projecting from the general outline of the hill, and 
surrounded by smooth carved seats and grooves, as we 
supposed ; for I own the whole appearance of the lo- 
cality was perfectly inexplicable to me. I have a sus- 
picion, that many of these horizontal planes and grooves 
were contrivances to aid their astronomical observations, 
like that I have mentioned having been discovered by 
De Gama at Chapultepec. 

As to Montezuma's Bath — it might be his foot bath 
if you will, but it would be an impossibility for any 
' monarch of larger dimensions than Oberon to take a 
duck in it. 

This mountain bears the marks of human industry to 
its very apex, many of the blocks of porphyry of which 
it is composed being quarried into smooth horizontal 
planes. It is impossible to say at present what portion 
of the surface is artificial or not, such is the state of con- 
fusion observable in every part. 

By what means nations unacquainted with the use of 
iron constructed works of such a smooth polish, in rocks 
of such hardness, it is extremely difficult to say. Many 
think tools of mixed tin and copper were employed ; 
others, that patient friction was one of the main means 
resorted to. Whatever may have been the real appro- 
priation of these inexplicable ruins, or the epoch of their 
construction, there can be no doubt but the whole of this 
hill, which I should suppose rises five or six hundred feet 
above the level of the plain, was covered with artificial 
works of one kind or another. They are, doubtless, 
rather of Toltec than of Aztec origin, and perhaps with 



142 



TEZCUCO. 



still yet more probability attributable to a people of an 
age yet more remote. 

Our descent was rapid. It was night by the time we 
crept forth from the deep barranca which separates the 
base of the hill of Tezcozingo from the plains, and gained 
La Navidad. The wind blew cold, but we galloped 
swiftly onward, and in less than one hour's time reached 
the meson at Tezcuco, where our servants and carriage 
had long before preceded us. The arrival of four armed 
horsemen at that time of the evening seemed to excite 
some sensation in the little town, and the rumour soon 
reached the commandant, who thought proper to pay us 
an official but very shy visit : and after beinof satisfied 
that we w r ere good men and true, apologized, by saying 
that times were bad, and it had been suspected we were 
some of Canalizza's insurgents. Next came, also offi- 
cially announced, the secretary of the alcalde, w r ith a 
similar polite request, that we would say who we were ; 
also backed by an humble apology, with this variation, 
that it had been rumoured that we were a party of La- 
drones or banditti ! By means of the information gained 
by these several functionaries, however, the good people 
of Tezcuco were now enabled to sleep in peace and 
quiet, leaving the strangers within their walls to their 
repose also. 

There are but few remains exposed to the observation 
of a superficial and hasty observer, to vindicate the an- 
cient claim of Tezcuco to be considered as the second 
city of the Mexican empire. Yet so it incontestibly was, 
according to the Spanish historians, and I have no doubt 
but a careful survey might bring to light much of a most 
interesting character to the antiquary. 

The ruins of tumuli, and other constructions of un- 
baked bricks, intermingled with platforms and terraces 
of considerable extent, are still to be traced ; and it 
is asserted that many of the Spanish edifices are con- 
structed out of the ruins of the teocallis, or of the 
palaces, which existed here at the time the Spaniards 
built the present town. 



THE CONTADOR. 



143 



I feel more regret than I can describe, at the hasty 
manner in which we were obliged, by a sort of neces- 
sity, to slur over our survey of this interesting site, which 
is one of those to which I should more particularly di- 
rect the attention of any friend of mine who may turn 
his steps towards New Spain. 

Here Cortez made his preparations for his last suc- 
cessful attempt upon the capital of the empire ; and the 
spot where he launched his brigantines is still indicated 
by a bridge called the Puente des Brigantinas, almost 
close to the town. At that time, the lake must have 
been in near proximity ; but, as at Mexico itself, a long 
level of nearly two leagues in breadth is to be traversed 
before you gain its shallow w 7 aters. 

There was one remarkable object upon this broad ex- 
tent of plain, to which our attention had been particu- 
larly directed by the virtuosi of the capital ; and that 
w r as the Contador, a grove of cypress vulgarly called 
"Montezuma's Garden." 

Accordingly, the following morning we mounted our 
horses early, and left the carriage to be packed during 
our absence. We had no sooner escaped from the gar- 
dens and enclosures in the immediate vicinity of the town, 
than we saw the Contador before us, breaking the uni- 
formity of the great level in advance, by its mass of 
dark foliage. 

Not a tree or a hillock is to be found in the vicinity 
of this remarkable grove ; which formerly must have 
been completely surrounded by the lake. 

The trees composing it may be between three and 
four hundred in number, disposed to a square of con- 
siderable size, partly open to the east. A smaller paral- 
lelogram, higher than the surrounding soil, is to be ob- 
served at the northeast corner, with a deep ditch round 
it. I found, upon examination, that this was a porphy- 
ritic rock. 

The interior of the great square, even at this day, is 
very slightly elevated above the present level of the lake 
to the west, and so spongy that we nearly buried our 



144 



TEZCUCO. 



horses in attempting to cross it. The ground is firm, 
however, at the base of the trees, whicii are planted very- 
close ; many of them are of great size — fifteen or sixteen 
yards in circumference. They are all of the noble spe- 
cies of cypress mentioned in a former letter, as the cu- 
pressus disticha. A raised causeway running from the 
northeast angle, evidently connected this island garden 
with the main land. 

There exists no reason why this should not have been 
one of the numerous gardens of Montezuma ; but, in all 
probability, the hands which planted those aged trees 
belonged to men of an age greatly anterior to that mon- 
arch : quien sabe ? — who knows ? I have seen few rem- 
nants of antiquity in the valley of Mexico w 7 hich inter- 
ested me more than this solitary grove. 

Before we quit the shore of Lake Tezcuco, I may 
mention a circumstance which has struck me greatly, as 
I have every reason to credit the source of my informa- 
tion. 

I have made you attentive to the gradual change 
which has been operated on the surface of the valley of 
Mexico, from the retirement of its waters within nar- 
rower bounds. At what time, or under what circum- 
stances, those waters first overflowed the country, it was 
to be expected that even tradition would be silent, when 
it is recollected that the people through whose medium 
the few traditions we possess were transmitted to our 
knowledge, had only occupied the valley for a few brief 
generations. But that there was a time, however re- 
mote, at which the waters, if they existed at all, occu- 
pied a much low r er level than even at the present day, 
at the same time that the continent was in the occupa- 
tion of people considerably advanced in the rude arts 
of semi-civilization, would seem to be an incontrovertible 
fact. 

Some time before our visit, a number of workmen 
were employed on the neighbouring estate of Chapingo, 
to excavate a canal over that part of the plain, from which 
the waters have gradually retired during the last three 
centuries. At four feet below the surface, they reached 



TEZCUCO. 



145 



an ancient causeway, of the existence of which there 
was of course not the most remote suspicion. The cedar 
piles, by which the sides were supported, were still sound 
at heart. Three feet below the edge of this ancient 
work, in what may have been the very ditch, they struck 
upon the entire skeleton of a mastodon, imbedded in 
the blue clay. Many of the most valuable bones were 
lost by the careless manner in which they were extri- 
cated ; others were ground to powder on their convey- 
ance to the capital, but sufficient remained to prove that 
the animal had been of great size. My informant meas- 
ured the diameter of the tusk, and found it to be eighteen 
inches. 

The number of the remains of this huge animal found 
on the table land of Mexico, and in the valley itself, is 
astonishing. Indeed, wherever extensive excavations 
have been made of late years, they have been amost al- 
ways met with. 

In digging the foundations of the present great church 
at Guadaloupe, many were brought to the surface. Mr. 
W. of the Hacienda of San Nicholas; four leagues to the 
south, in forming an excavation for an engine house, 
found others. A friend of mine in the capital receivedj 
while we were there, portions of a skeleton from Guada- 
laxara; and I was informed, that in a neighbouring state, 
there exists a barranca, which, from the quantity of these 
colossal remains which are there found, the Indians have 
named the Barranca de los Gigantes, 

Though I should be very glad to take shelter under 
the convenient Quiensabe? — the use of which I have 
suggested to you — I could not avoid, at the time I was in 
Mexico, putting many isolated facts together, and feeling 
inclined to believe that this country had not only been in- 
habited in extremely remote times, when the valley bore 
a different aspect from that which it now exhibits, or 
which tradition gives it, but that the extinct race of enor- 
mous animals, whose remains would seem, in the instance 
I have cited, to be coeval with the undated works of man, 
may have been subjected to his will, and made instrumen- 

N 



146) SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN. 

tal by the application of their gigantic force, to the trans- 
port of those vast masses of sculptured and chiselled 
rock, which we marvel to see lying in positions so far re* 
moved from their natural site. 

The existence of these ancient paved causeways also, 
not only from their solid construction over the flat and 
low plains of the valley, but as they may be traced run- 
ning for miles over the dry table land and the mountains, 
appears to me to lend plausibility to the supposition ; as 
one might inquire — to what end the labour of such 
works, in a country where beasts of burden were un- 
known ? 

But I leave this subject to wiser heads and bolder the- 
orists. Had the mammoth of Chapingo been discov- 
ered with a ring in his nose, or a bit in his mouth ; a 
yoke on his head, or a crupper under his tail, the ques- 
tion would have been set at rest. As it is, there is plenty 
of room for conjecture and dispute.* 

On leaving Tezcuco, in the course of the morning, we 
took the road conducting to the northeast. 

An advance of five leagues over dusty roads, and 
through picturesque villages, whose cottages were almost 
hidden from view by the close hedge of the organ cac- 
tus, brought us to a slope of a hill commanding a view 
of the valley of San Juan Teotihuacan. 

The two huge pyramidal masses rising in the centre 
of the plain, anciently called Micoatl, or the Path of the 
Dead, immediately arrest the attention. They lie two 
miles east of the town, which, imbosomed in shady 
groves, and irrigated throughout by plenteous streams ot 
clearwater, seemed to us a very paradise, after our shel- 
erless ride in the hot sun. 

My companions betaking themselves to a state of tor- 

* The remains of five distinct species of mastodon have been deter- 
mined ; and of these, four have been found on the continent of Amer* 
i^a, spread over a surface, extending from the districts south of the St. 
Lawrence, to Lake Titicaca* 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



147 



pidity, as usual in the afternoon, I began my survey in 
solitude. Close to the town, there are a number of heaps 
of rubbish, evidently ancient ; and I found them, upon 
examination, to be chiefly composed of antique pottery, 
fragments of obsidian knives, and arrow heads ; and the 
same description applies to a great portion of the surface 
of the plain between the town and the pyramids, which 
lie in close proximity to the road leading to Otumba. 

As usual in this portion of the table land, the breath- 
less heat of the morning had been succeeded in the after- 
noon by partial whirlwinds ; and many moving pillars of 
dust, some of more than a hundred feet in height, were 
travelling over the country in every direction. One 
passed close to me, and I was surprised by the rapidity 
of the spiral movement, and the violence of the rushing 
sound accompanying it. 

On nearing the vicinity of the pyramids, a mule path, 
which leaves the smaller of the two more to the north- 
ward, leads you in ten minutes' walk to the base of the 
House of the Sun.* 

The distance between the two may be, perhaps, some- 
thing short of half a mile. 

Time — and who shall determine how many revolu- 
tions of the sun 1 — the alternate heat and rain of tropical 
summer and winter, the breath of the whirlwind, and the 
feet and hands of innumerable generations, have conspired 
to diminish the size of the huge mass of earth and stone, 
and to destroy the symmetry of its form. The angles have 
long ago lost their sharpness ; and the different platforms 
or terraces much of their breadth ; still, three of the four 
stories of which the great pyramid consisted are per- 
fectly distinguishable, even at the distance of many miles. 
In the smaller, they are more difficult to recognise. 

* The dimensions ordinarily given of the pyramids of San Juan 
Teotihuacan are the following. Tonatiuh Ytzagual — the House of the 
San : base line, 682 feet ; perpendicular height, 180 feet. Mitzli 
Ytzagual — the House of the Moon : height, 144 feet ; base, — . 



148 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



I have some suspicion that the real base lies below the 
level of the present soil, concealed by the wrecks cast 
down upon it, and by the gradual elevation of the plateau 
on which it stands. Almost the entire coating of lime, 
which, doubtless, cased the slopes as well as the terraces, 
has crumbled and disappeared, and in ascending, you 
climb over a rough and uneven surface, composed of po- 
rous scoria and amygdaloid, mixed with clay — jagged 
with spiny tufts and nopal trees, and strewed with frag- 
ments of pottery and obsidian. 

The terraces, in many parts, still retain their exterior 
covering of salmon-coloured stucco. 

Unlike the sharply pointed pyramids of Egypt,* these 
erections, in common with most of the teocallis of Mex- 
ico, were constructed in distinct stories, and terminated 
by a platform, upon which, probably, a small structure 
was erected. 

On the summit of the House of the Moon, the ruins of 
such a building are to be seen ; but all vestige, if such 
there were, has long ago disappeared from the platform 
of the larger pyramid. 

In awaiting the arrival of my companions I had abun- 
dant time to take a minute survey of the remarkable 
scene around me. 

The House of the Moon appeared, as I have already 
stated, about half a mile to the north, with two tumuli 
disposed at the two southern angles, and two intermedi- 
ate ones on the southern base. A raised platform, or 
apron, forming a parallelogram of considerable size, ex- 
tended in advance ; .with three small pyramids symmet- 
rically ranged on one side, and seven or eight on the 
other. From the step at the termination of this apron, a 
broad, well-marked road, or vista, proceeded directly to 
the south, passing before the House of the Sun, which, like 
the lesser erection, squares exactly with the cardinal 
points, but stands rather more to the eastward. 

* According to Pocoek, one Egyptian pyramid, that of Sakhara»was 
precisely of this plan and construction. 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



149 



Innumerable groups or " systems" of small pyramid- 
ical tumuli are disposed, at a greater or less distance, on 
either side of this great road, which may be distinguished 
bearing away for miles across the broad plain, towards 
the mountains in the direction of the remarkable hill of 
Tezcozingo. Is not this properly the Micoatl, or Path 
of the Dead? 

Look where you will on the great level at your feet, 
you see innumerable shapeless heaps and swells which 
mark the accumulation of artificial rubbish. Who shall 
say but this wide field affords a grave to millions? 

To the eastward, at the distance of some miles, rises 
the inconsiderable ridge which divides the valley of San 
Juan Teotihuacan from the plains of Otumba; and west- 
ward, the eye rests upon the pretty groves and churches 
of the town, and the neighbouring villages, backed by 
the expanding vista, where the valley opens upon the 
blue waters of Lake Tezcuco, and the main valley of 
Mexico, with the double range of noble mountains in the 
background. A glorious view, truly, both for extent, col- 
ouring, and interest ! 

In a locality like this, the features of which I have been 
attempting to describe ; surrounded by monuments whose 
history has eluded the most patient researches hitherto, 
the mind is naturally disposed to speculation. It matters 
little that the origin of the objects around you is hidden 
in the impenetrable mist of past ages ; that their design 
and appropriation has alternately occupied and baffled 
the wits of far wiser than yourself ; that the most labo- 
rious collation of evidence has only brought to light iso- 
lated and uncertain items of intelligence with respect to 
them — speculate you must. 

You need not be reminded that our range of know- 
ledge as Europeans, with regard to the history of this 
vast continent, and this portion of it in particular, only 
extends over a space of a little more than three centu- 
ries. From this period, tracing time towards its begin- 
ning, the vague chronicles of the aborigines at the date 

n2 



150 



THE PYRAMIDS, 



of the conquest, only carry you backward to an epochs 
a hundred and fifty years, or thereabout, anterior to that 
event ; or to the foundation of the Mexican empire. 

The weak and uncertain glimmer of their traditional 
history, respecting the period of the Aztec emigration, 
and that of the various nations whom they succeeded, if 
followed till it vanishes in utter darkness, hardly points 
back to times more remote than the middle of the sev- 
enth century, an age of comparatively modern history in 
the Old World. At that epoch, it is stated that the Tol- 
tecs, a powerful nation, emigrating from their original 
country somewhere to the northeast, made an irruption 
upon Anahuac, or the great table land and valley of Mex- 
ico. Their pilgrimage southward seems to have been 
slow, and to have lasted an entire century ; and several 
sites are indicated as places of temporary sojourn before 
they finally settled, but their principal seat of govern- 
ment, which w 7 as monarchical, was at Tula, a few leagues 
to the north of the valley of Mexico. 

They were, by the testimony of all succeeding tribes, 
the most civilized of all the nations which held posses- 
sion of Anahuac ; living in cities, submitting to a regular 
form of government, and possessing a knowledge of hi- 
eroglyphic writing, the casting of metals, and the cultiva- 
tion of maize and cotton; evincing great skill in the me- 
chanic arts, and chiefly remarkable for the ingenious as- 
tronomical arrangement of time in use among them.* 
They held their sway over the central portion of the 
country for four centuries, when they would appear to 
have been cut off by a famine and pestilence, and most 
of their cities deserted. Part of the remnant emigrated 
to the southward, towards the isthmus; a few remained 
in the sacred city of Cholula. 

A hundred years' desolation followed, when, about 
1 170, a second people, emigrating also from the north* 
sat down upon the deserted territory. They were also 
subject to a monarchical government ; but were far less 
civilized than their predecessors : and in advance in the 



* See page 130, &c. 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



151 



arts of life, as well as their simple worship of the sun, 
they seem to be assimilated to the Natchez of Louisiana. 

Other tribes, the principal of which was the Acolhu- 
ans, followed. Under all their distinct appellations, yet 
speaking at most dialects of the same language, it seems 
probable that all these tribes were offsets from that 
teeming hive of human beings of which the unknown seat 
lay somewhere to the northward, in the unexplored coun- 
try to the north and east of California, between the west- 
ern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and the great Pacific 
Ocean.* 

The Alcolhuan monarchy lasted for several centuries, 
till the rise of the Mexicans or Aztecs, the last of seven 
tribes of the Nahuatlacs, the people who had emigrated 
to Anahuac before the Acolhuans, put an end to it. 

It appears that these seven tribes had departed from 
their northern home in company ; but that after three 
considerable halts, disagreement produced a separation 
of the Aztec tribe from their brethren. The six pro- 
ceeded to the south, and formed their settlements ; while 
many years elapsed before the seventh, oracle led, came 
to a final pause in the valley of Mexico, where they 
founded their principal city on the site of the present 
capital, amid the waters of the lake Tezcuco. Like most 
of the nations whose entry into the country I have thus 
briefly noticed, the Mexicans adopted as much of the 
agriculture, arts, and demi-civilization of the Toltecs as 
was extant, and conformed to their astronomical division 
of time, mythology, and probably to many of their reli- 
gious observances and customs. 

During their period of a hundred years' wandering in 
Anahuac, before making their final settlement, the Mex- 
icans are stated to have succumbed to the power of the 

A.D. 

* Emigration of the Toltecs into Anahuac ... 607 
Termination of the Toltec monarchy - 1051 
Emigration of the Chechimecas ----- 1170 
Emigration of the six trihes of the Nahuatlacs - - 1178 
Then followed the Alcalhuans, with whom the Chechime- 
cas coalesce. The Mexicans, the seventh tribe of the 
Nahuatlacs, build Tenochtitlan in - 1325 

See Humboldt's Researches. 



152 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



Acolhuans. They finally adopted the monarchical form 
of government, and gaining the ascendency, maintained 
it till the arrival of the Spaniards. At that time remnants 
of the most of the tribes here mentioned were to be found, 
here or there in the country, mingled with small primi- 
tive tribes of quite a distinct race, some of which are sup- 
posed, with apparent reason, to have inhabited New Spain 
before the arrival of the Toltecs. 

And now, who built the pyramids of San Juan Teoti- 
huacan ? who laid the foundations of the colossal teo- 
calli of Cholula? Some say the Toltecs — others the 
Olmecas or the Xicalancas, people of an equally remote 
origin ; and all agree in attributing them to the earliest 
times of which traditional record exists. 

There is no saying by what people, or at what epoch 
they were raised, nor to what forms of idol worship they 
were in succession consecrated ; but from the tangled 
thread of tradition, sufficient may be unravelled to show 
the original design of these monuments, and what were 
the facts of which they were to be the remembrance to 
future ages : and tradition, while perhaps it does the wise 
and skilful Toltecs but justice, when it ascribes to them 
the elaborate sculpture strewed over the face of New 
Spain and Central America, might do them no wrong in 
attributing these vast erections, and many of the great 
works extant on the table land, to a far higher antiquity. 
At what epoch of the world's history the vast western 
continent became peopled by the human race, is a ques- 
tion which has given rise to many discussions and differ- 
ent hypotheses. 

The idea of its early occupation would appear to be 
perfectly consistent both with analogous reasoning, and 
with the testimony to be gathered from the traditions 
and customs, civil and religious, of the aborigines them- 
selves, throughout the continent. Is it not to be supposed, 
that, however brought about, the same Almighty hand 
which scattered the congregated descendants of Noah 
abroad upon the face of all the earth, would fulfil its de- 
sign with regard to this portion of the habitable surface 
of the globe also, and that speedily? And if the coun- 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



153 



tries of the north, and the south, and the west, then re- 
ceived these allotted portions of the human family — and 
the vast face of Asia became straightway peopled by the 
scattered multitude — why should it be doubted, that the 
varied countries of the extreme east also lay open to the 
millions emigrating from the common cradle of the 
second race of man on the plains of Shinar? It has 
been strongly contested, that the deeper we pry into the 
history and habits, languages and institutions of the Amer- 
ican people, the less reason we discover to believe that 
they are descended from any particular people of the Old 
World : at the same time that a search into their early 
traditions and religious superstitions appears to prove, 
with undoubted certainty, that a connection once existed 
between them and the mass of mankind, and that, when- 
ever and however isolated, there can be no doubt, from 
the great analogies existing between them 3 of their hav- 
ing a common origin and early history. 

The various hypotheses started again and again, at- 
tempting to trace the origin of the American aborigines 
to any particular people of the old continent,* whether 
Jew or gentile, have all hitherto failed in carrying con- 
viction to the minds of the world in general ; and it must 
be admitted that many of the arguments made use of to 
bolster up these theories, have only proved the ignorance 
of their advocates to the true sources of the institutions 
of pagan idolatry throughout the globe. Wherever you 
direct your attention, to the barbarous tribes of the north 
and south, or the demi-civilized people of the central por- 
tions of the continent on both sides of the isthmus, you 

* How far those may be in the right who would prove that the king- 
doms of Mexico and Peru were founded by the troops sent by the Khan 
of Tartary, towards the close of the thirteenth century, to subdue Japan ; 
that Mango Capac, the first inca of Peru, was the son of Kublai, the 
grandson of the Mogul conqueror, Genghis Khan ; and that the ances- 
tor of Montezuma was a Mogul grandee in his train, I am in nowise 
able to determine : but it is certainly a most singular circumstance, that 
suddenly, about that epoch, these two great powers sprung up simulta- 
neously in different parts of the continent, and grew and increased, and 
were in the end annihilated by the Spaniards, without having had any 
connection, or being known of one another, as far as can be ascer- 
tained. 



154 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



find, under all modifications of tradition, proofs of their 
being of a common stock with other nations of the globe, 
and of a long and complete separation — intermingled with 
great and striking analogies in their dogmas, customs, and 
mythological systems; which it is now admitted that all 
the great nations of antiquity — Egypt, Chaldea, China, 
and Hindoostan — all drew from one common source, and 
probably learned in one common school, between the 
epoch of the deluge and the time of the dispersion. Be- 
yond these it has been asserted by many, that no affinity 
whatsoever with any particular people can be traced, 
except such as might be supposed to be the natural fruit 
of the human mind, its passions, and its necessities in its 
fallen state, devoid of the light of revelation, however 
isolated, and wherever placed. 

The most benighted of the American tribes have re- 
tained the impression of the existence of a Supreme 
Being, who was the " Master of Life," and the absolute 
governor of the w r orld. This is indisputable, at the same 
time that among most of them, the principal adoration 
or worship was reserved for a host of minor deities and 
idols. 

All concurred in asserting the existence of an evil spirit 
or principle, whose w 7 orks and suggestions were calcu- 
lated to injure them, although the depravity and blind- 
ness of their nature led them to seek to propitiate him. 

All seem to have forebodings of the immortality of the 
soul, admitting or implying that after the death of the 
body, their thinking part would still exist. They have 
generally professed belief in future rewards and punish- 
ments ; each people picturing their heaven and hell, ac- 
cording to the notions of felicity and misery imbibed from 
their early education and habits. 

But this is not all. Among whatever division of these 
aborigines tradition is found to exist, you discover 
wrapped up in allegory, or distorted by perverted fancy, 
distinct testimony of the origin of all from common 
parents ; the idea that mankind had forfeited their orig- 
inal state of happiness ; coupled with faint glimpses of 
the coming of One, who should work a regeneration, and 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



155 



should restore the golden age ; and a distinct record of 
the destruction of the world by water, and of the pres- 
ervation of one family, from whom, of course, each, in 
his own fashion, derived its own progeniture. In all, in 
a greater or less degree, you detect that craving after 
something beyond human reason, which may serve as a 
guide ; a craving which, at the same time that it is the 
most fertile source of credulous and superstitious belief, is 
sufficient to prove the absolute necessity of a Divine rev- 
elation, and the impracticability of man's dwelling in con- 
tent upon earth without one. Further, by the traditional 
histories of the people inhabiting Central America, you 
are carried forward, in a most extraordinary manner, to 
the events attending the building of the tower of Babel, 
and the subsequent scattering of the human race.* 

But here, it has generally been considered, that all 
consistent analogies cease ; and it would certainly appear 
that as, after the deluge, the human race lived together 
for five hundred years as one great family, subject to the 
same practices and superstitions, cultivating the same 
arts and sciences, and having one common tradition and 
history, so, after the dispersion, they spread in different 
bands over the face of the globe, carrying with them 
the knowledge, science, and so forth, which, till then, had 
been common to all, and which was certainly the base 
upon which the founders of nations in the Old World 
afterward built their several systems, civil and religious. 

It is perfectly comprehensible for the rest, that the 
principal features in the traditions of the Americans, 
whether barbarous or demi-civilized, should be continual 

* " The people of Mechoachan preserved a tradition, that Coxcox, 
whom they call Tezpi, embarked in a spacious vessel with his wife, 
children, various animals and vegetables, whose use was important to 
man. After the waters began to decrease, Tezpi sent out from his ark 
a vulture, to ascertain the state of the waters, but this bird, which feeds 
on carrion, did not return to him, in consequence of the number of dead 
bodies which were to be found everywhere strewed on the earth. Tezpi 
sent out other birds, of which the humming bird alone returned, holding 
in its beak a branch covered with leaves. Tezpi seeing that the earth 
had begun to produce vegetation, left his vessel near the mountain of 
Colhuacan." — Humboldt, Res. ii. 65. 



156 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



emigration and removal from place to place ; and also 
that the dim record of the great events 1 have alluded to 
should be intertwined with others, referring to events of 
a far more recent date ; that the personages and char- 
acters of the earliest time should be strangely mingled 
with the history of such as may have existed ages after ; 
and, that the seat which a people actually occupied, 
should be in their records, the very theatre upon which 
the great events pictured by their traditions should have 
taken place. 

The origin of the huge pyramidal monuments of Asia, 
in the traditional record remaining among the nations of 
antiquity, of the building of the tower of Babel, which 
was itself but a symbolic representation of the mountain 
on which the ark rested after the deluge, has been fully 
established by the pens of many able writers, and the 
resemblance between the latter, as described by the 
ancients, and the teocallis or temples of the ancient peo- 
ple of Anahuac, is too glaring to be overlooked or denied, 
by the most skeptically disposed. 

There can be no reasonable doubt as to the strict 
analogy; and if there were, the traditions attached to 
the great pyramid of Cholula, among the rest, would 
remove it. 

It is too interesting not to merit transcription. 

" Before the great inundation," runs the tradition, 
" which took place four thousand eight hundred years 
after the creation of the w T orld, the country of Anahuac 
w T as inhabited by giants ; all of whom either perished in 
the inundation, or were transformed into fishes, save 
seven, who fled into caverns. When the waters sub- 
sided, one of the giants, called Xelhua, surnamed the 
Architect, went to Cholula, where, as a memorial of the 
mountain Tlaloc, which had served for an asylum to 
himself and his six brethren, he built an artificial hill in 
form of a pyramid. He ordered bricks to be made in 
the province of Tlanamalco, at the foot of the Sierra of 
Cocotl : and to convey them to Cholula, he placed a file 
of men who passed them from hand to hand. The gods 
beheld with wrath this edifice, the top of which was to 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



157 



reach the clouds*. Irritated at the daring attempt of 
Xelhua, they hurled fire on the pyramid. Numbers of 
the workmen perished ; the work was discontinued, and 
the monument was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, the god 
of the air."* 

I have said, that up to the present time none of the ar- 
guments employed to prove the descent of the American 
aborigines, or of any part and distinct portion of them, 
from particular people of the ancient world, have seem- 
ingly gained universal belief. Nevertheless, it must be 
admitted, that the light thrown by late researches, and 
the collection of evidence from various quarters in fa- 
vour of the plausibility of the theory that the nations of 
Central America at least are of Hebrew origin, is of a 
character calculated to make the unprejudiced pause, in 
hazarding too positive an opinion. As to myself, all I 
can say is, that when I knew less of the subject, I felt in- 
clined to throw more ridicule upon the idea than I dare 
do now ; at the same time that I would not deem the 
question decided, despite the opinion of many laborious 
and enthusiastic writers, from the time of Las Casas, Sa- 
hagun, Boturini, and their cotemporaries and successors, 
down to those of Ethan Smith, Mrs. Simon, and Lord 
Kingsbury, till it be clearly demonstrated that those 
most remarkable analogies which are ably set forth in 
these works, are not traceable to the times which imme- 
diately succeeded the deluge, and preceded the disper- 
sion. 

Well may the opinion of the world hang in suspense 
with regard to every doubtful question in which any part 
of the chosen people of God is implicated. The sepa- 
rate existence of the Jews as a distinct people, even to 
this day, is a miracle which none can question ; and 
wherever the descendants of the lost Ten Tribes are 
banished — to the east, or to the west — we may firmly 
believe, that, being partakers of the same striking prom- 
ises with the Jews, the same God who has promised to 



* See Humboldt's Res., L, 97. 



158 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



recall to his fold the " dispersed of Judah," will not for- 
get " the outcasts of Israel.' 5 

I feel tempted still to remark, that if the exact time in 
which the American continent became peopled is a mat- 
ter of uncertainty, the manner is not the less so, and as 
long as we confine our speculations to the narrow limits 
which the generality of theorists have adopted in their 
hypotheses, the result must be unsatisfactory. 

That a vast continent, extending from the icy pole to 
the 56th degree of south latitude, should have been peo- 
pled either by the chance introduction of individuals by 
rafts or canoes, from the shores of Asia, or some of the 
islands at present found in the intermediate ocean — or 
even by the passage of a strait almost within the limits 
of the frigid zone, would appear preposterous, and im- 
probable in the highest degree ; and these ideas become 
ludicrous when applied to the introduction of animals of 
every description ; many of which are incapacitated, from 
their structure, for existing in such high latitude. 

The Mosaic account of the deluge, and of the manner 
in which it pleased God to preserve the race of men and 
of animals, puerile and incredible as the latter may ap- 
pear to the freethinkers and neologists of the present day, 
is, however, not the less worthy of credit by the philoso- 
pher, as well as the simple-minded Christian ; and other 
testimony to its truth than that of the Bible, if such be 
necessary, may be culled from the belief and traditions, 
of both the pagan nations of the eastern hemisphere, and 
the central nations of America. 

In whatever locality it suited the designs of Providence 
to bring together the various animals for their introduc- 
tion into the ark, it must not be overlooked, that that part 
of the globe on which the ark rested after the deluge, was 
one which of all others was the most calculated to facili- 
tate the replenishing of the surface of the earth with ani- 
mals, to whatever climate they were attached, or what- 
ever were their habits. 

To the north of the mountains between the Black and 
Caspian seas, a cool and elevated plateau led to the lim- 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



159 



its of the Frozen Sea, when immediately to the south the 
hot and arid plains of Arabia and Armenia afforded an 
easy passage to the equatorial latitudes ; and as far as the 
Old World was concerned, it may be said, that no ani- 
mal, in leaving the ark, had to pass through a zone incon- 
genial to its nature. Neither is it to be assumed that this 
evidently wise scheme of Providence was violated with 
regard to America. 

The probability is, that there once existed easy modes 
of communication, which have since disappeared in some 
mighty physical convulsion : and the opinion that this is 
the case, gains additional strength, both from the config- 
uration of this portion of the globe, and the vague but 
certain traditions, which are entertained by many na- 
tions, of such a second great catastrophe having taken 
place posterior to the deluge. 

The concurrent testimony of many scientific observers 
as to the appearance of the eastern coasts of Asia, and 
the groups of islands scattered over the Indian and Pa- 
cific oceans, and the proofs of large bodies of land hav- 
ing disappeared, need not be dwelt upon ; nor the almost 
universal tradition current among those islands, of such a 
great physical convulsion, or disruption of the continents 
perfectly distinct from those of the great deluge. He 
who is disposed to glean, may glean from the history of 
the nations of the Old World, testimony to the same pur- 
port. The Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindoos, have 
all similar records, concerning this second great revolu- 
tion, which seemingly produced these great changes on 
the surface of the globe, and in the disposition of its 
parts. 

It may be further mentioned, that the signification of 
the name of the patriarch Peleg (that is division ; # " for 
in his days the earth was divided") corroborates this idea 
in a singular manner. The word rendered " division," 
signifying, according to good authorities, a physical, and 
not a political division or separation ; for proofs of which 
you may be referred to the ingenious work of Dr. M'Cul- 



* See Genesis x. 25. 



160 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



loh # — where it is shown that both the Chinese and the 
Hindoo records chronicle a certain terrible geological 
convulsion as occurring in the years 2357 and 245(3 be- 
fore Christ, both of which dates fall within the life of Pe- 
leg. Moreover, the signification of the name of the 
patriarch Salah, who was his cotemporary, again fa- 
vours the same hypothesis, and it must be conceded that 
many favourite and received theories rest on far worse 
grounds. 

According to this, the series of convulsions which 
broke up the surface of the globe will have occurred 
eight or nine hundred years after the dispersion of man- 
kind, and consequently after that every part of the surface 
may have become occupied by both men and animals. 

This is not the place for repeating what others have 
established with regard to the analogies of the Mexican 
mythology with that of the Old World. The subject is 
a tempting one, but I have already stepped overmy proper 
bounds, and in referring you to Humboldt, Faber, Bryant, 
and other well-known writers, I crave your pardon for 
my digression, and resume my narrative. 

On repairing to the House of the Moon, I found my 
two companions busily employed in verifying the truth 
of the information we had received in Mexico, of an en- 
trance having been discovered. The opening in ques- 
tion lies in the southern face of the pyramid, at two 
thirds of the elevation, and possibly about the level of 
the third terrace from the bottom. It is difficult to deter- 
mine exactly, for the whole form of this the lesser pyramid 
is much more indistinct than that of its rival. A number 
of Indian women and children beset the entrance, which 
was little larger than that into a fox earth, and after un- 
dergoing a partial stripping, I proceeded to share in the 
glory or danger of the enterprise, whichever it might be. 
As it happened, there was neither to be gained. I laid 
myself flat upon my face, and ducking into the aperture, 
squeezed myself blindly forward with my candle, through 

* Researches Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the Aborigi- 
nal History of America, by J. H, M'Culloh, M.D. Baltimore, 1829, 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



161 



a passage inclining downward for about ten yards, 
when I found myself in a more open gallery, at the ter- 
mination of which, not many paces distant, I found De 
Pourtales and M'Euen at the brink of two wells, which, 
considering the height at w 7 hich we entered, might per- 
haps be in the centre of the pyramid. The latter 
valorously allowed himself to be lowered by a rope 
into the aperture on the left hand, to the depth of per- 
haps fifteen feet, without making any further discovery. 
The other pit was still shallower, and no signs of any 
other passage could be discovered. Both the walls of 
the passage and the sides of the wells, as far as we could 
see, were constructed of unburnt bricks ; and a plentiful 
mouthful of dust was our only recompense. Other and 
more important cavities there may be, if they could be 
hit upon. No entrance has been discovered in the 
House of the Sun. 

Of the Indians, to whom our adventure was a subject 
of both curiosity and awe, we purchased a hundred or 
more of those singular terra cotta heads, which, inter- 
mingled with fragments of obsidian knives and arrows, 
are discovered in such inexhaustible quantity in many 
parts of Mexico, but principally in the vicinity of these 
pyramids, and on the neighbouring plain of Otumba. I 
am not aware of any light having been thrown as yet, 
either upon the uses to which these models of the human 
countenance were put by the people with whose cus- 
toms and ceremonies their fabric and use in such quan- 
tities were seemingly connected. By far the greater 
majority of those which came under my observation 
bore an extraordinary resemblance to one another, both 
in the strongly marked features of the face, the facial 
angle, and the height and formation of the forehead. 

I should explain, that the hinder part of the head is 
never given in its full proportions, so that the phrenolo- 
gist is quite at fault. The physiognomy has nothing in 
common with the present tribes of Indian descended 
from the Aztec race. Several of the heads were crowned 
with a broad and ornamented tiara or head dress ; but 
in general there was no ornament about them ; and with 

o 2 



162 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



the exception of a few, which had evidently served as 
ornaments upon some earthen vessels, all seemed to have 
been found in the state in which they were modelled. 
The composition is a fine clay, well tempered and slightly 
baked. 

Fragments of pottery of divers colours, and a small 
baked mass of clay with two perforations side by side, 
which, whatever were its original uses, would not make 
a bad candlestick for those who had no better, are also 
picked up in great numbers ; as well as an inconceivable 
quantity of fragments of obsidian or rather jade arrows 
and quadrangular knive blades, from one to two inches 
long. I was greatly struck in observing the uniformity 
of the angles presented by the majority of the latter, 
and several circumstances combine to make me believe 
that the people who fabricated them had some method 
of working them into shape, by taking advantage of the 
conchoidal fracture. 

In the vicinity of Real del Monte there are ancient 
obsidian mines which must have been worked in very 
ancient times. The mineral is disposed in thin beds al- 
ternately, with fine sand, and was reached by means of 
numberless small shafts or pits. It is said to lie there in 
inexhaustible quantities, and from thence, doubtless, the 
Toltecs drew much of the material for their weapons, 
and for the beautiful masks with which they covered 
the faces of their illustrious dead. But there is no lack 
of it elsewhere in New Spain, both above and under 
ground. 

By some unaccountable forgetfulness we left the te- 
ocallis without visiting the so-called " Fainting Stone," 
which lies in the hollow between two of the smaller pyr- 
amids at the foot of the House of the Moon. It is a 
large square mass with a sculptured face, and the popular 
belief with regard to it is, that any one sitting down on it 
faints dead away. We heard one anecdote, singularly 
confirmatory of this incredible tradition, from some of our 
European acquaintances in Mexico, and therefore re- 
gretted the more having been so neglectful, as to have 
omitted to set the matter at rest by our own experience* 



ZUMPANGO. 1C3 

r 

The following morning we addressed ourselves early 
to the duty of escorting our ponderous vehicle to the 
north towards Lake Zumpango, over a line of country 
on which we were led to believe that the banditti were 
as plentiful as the nopal bushes. But here again our 
perverse good fortune brought us through without adven- 
ture, or any chance of trying our mettle ; and to tell the 
truth, had it not been for the coach and its ten mules, 
a more banditti-looking party than our own could hardly 
have been met with. 

The range of secondary hills over which our track lay 
on our early morning ride to Tecama, an old halting 
place on the Real del Monte road, gave us frequent 
glimpses of the lakes in the plain below, and particularly 
of that of San Cristobal, between which and the marshes 
of Lake Tezcuco, the old Spaniards have left one of the 
noblest monuments of. their skill and magnificence, in the 
construction of the celebrated dike and causeway, by 
which they prevented the surplus waters of the higher 
from entering the lower. Its length is fifteen hundred 
veras, its breadth ten, and height from three to four ; the 
whole structure being a mass of solid masonry. 

A short pause at Tecama was followed by our descent 
into the great level, which, once doubtless covered with 
waters, extends from the present shores of the lake, round 
the base of a group of volcanic hills, towards the foot 
of the great chain, which hems in the valley of Mexico 
to the north and northeast. 

Zumpango is about five leagues distant from Tecama 3 
or eight from San Juan Teotihuacan. 

It may give you some idea of the utter ignorance 
which reigns in the capital among the better classes, both 
natives and Europeans, as to the topography of the coun- 
try, when I assure you that we had set out on this excur- 
sion, as upon a journey of discovery; without being able 
to gather the slightest information of a positive character 
with regard to the practicability of what we proposed 



164 



HUEHUETOCA. 



achieving, though we sought it for a week in advance on 
every hand. The possibility of rounding the southern 
end of Lake Tezcuco to the town of that name, was 
again and again positively denied. Distances were 
tripled ; and as to the scheme of proceeding directly with 
our train from San Juan Teotihuacan to Huehuetoca, 
that was laughed at as quite chimerical. We found not 
only no great difficulty, as you read, but discovered that 
all the information we had received with regard to dis- 
tances had been greatly overrated. 

The town of Zumpango^ where we made our main 
halt, presents nothing worthy of note so far as we could 
discover. The northern shore of the lake of that name, 
which we skirted in the course of the afternoon, is, how- 
ever, very pretty. 

Passing one or two picturesque villages, w T e gained the 
plains beyond. Our road led us close to the walls of the 
great Hacienda of Jalpa ; and, in fine, at an early hour 
of the evening, to the village of Huehuetoca, whose mas- 
sive church had long served us as our landmark in ap- 
proaching from the eastward. 

There is little either in the miserable town itself, or in 
the surrounding country, as far as its general features are 
considered, to allure the traveller to a halt ; or to tempt 
me to put a tail to this long letter ; but, in the Desague 
Real, this otherwise uninteresting corner of the valley of 
Mexico contains one of the most gigantic monuments of 
human design to be found in any country ; and to visit it 
was the motive of our excursion thus far to the north- 
ward. 

You may have gathered from what I have already 
communicated, that nature has provided no natural out- 
let for the waters of the five lakes of the valley ; and 
that in times of extraordinary and sudden flood, the sur- 
plus of waters of all the more elevated lakes to the north 
and south must be discharged into Lake Tezcuco, which 
forms the lowest level of the valley of Mexico. 

I have also remarked that both the ancient capital and 
the present city, have been exposed from this cause to 



HUEHUETOCA. 



165 



great inundations, in spite of the gradual decrease of the 
waters of Lake Tezcuco, from causes which I have hinted 
at in the first page of this letter. 

The attention of the Spanish viceroys being thus im- 
peratively drawn to the subject, about the commencement 
of the seventeenth century, a scheme was formed by a 
Spanish engineer, Enrico Martinez, by the execution of 
which, the surplus waters from the two upper lakes to the 
northward — San Cristobal and Zumpango — were to be 
drawn off in another direction ; their basins being the 
most liable to overflow, from the character and size of 
their tributaries. 

The comparative depression and narrowness of the 
mountain rampart, hemming in the valley to the north- 
ward, in the vicinity of Luke Znmpango, favoured the 
project of constructing a tunnel by which this should be 
affected, forming a duct through which all the waters 
rising above a certain level should be conveyed into the 
bed of the river Tula, the main branch of the Panuco, 
whose source lay on the other side of the ridge, and 
which you will recognise as entering the gulf at Tam- 
pico. 

This great work was commenced in 1607, and in the 
course of its prosecution by the hand of the native In- 
dians, hundreds are said to have perished by the caving 
in of the earth and other casualties. But what was that ? 
the work was to be done, and if Indians were wanted, 
a party of horsemen armed with the lasso was sent out 
to the distant villages, and the poor natives were secured 
and brought to the scene of toil like so many wild horses. 

The memory of what their ancestors endured at Hue- 
huetoca, both at this epoch and in after times, is not for- 
gotten by the present race. 

A tunnel or subterranean gallery was at length fin- 
ished, 20,000 feet in length : but, in 1629, the stoppage 
of the passage by the fall of the roof, or other casualty, 
combined with a season of unusual flood, caused such a 
rise in the waters of Lake Tezcuco, that the whole of the 
ancient bed, and the streets of the capital itself, with the 
exception of the very highest levels, were covered with 



166 



MEXICO. 



•water to the height of three feet, and remained submerged 
till 1634. 

Many projects were set afloat in the interval, and even 
the propriety of abandoning the present site, and rebuild- 
ing the metropolis on the rising ground beyond Tacuba 
agitated ; but at length it was determined to convert the 
tunnel through the hill of Nochistongo into an open cut. 
This was effected, after years of labour, and infinite delay, 
expense, and loss of Indian life ; and the completion of the 
work dates from the year 1789- The cost of this pro- 
digious canal, and of the various dikes raised in further- 
ance of the same design, among which that of San Cris- 
tobal is to be included, amounted to far above the sum 
of six millions of dollars. 

The morning after our arrival, a visit to the Desague 
Real was our only business, and we accordingly rode 
along its whole line, to the summit of the hill through 
whose bowels it has been carried. 

At the summit it presents an enormous excavation, cut 
to the depth of one hundred and ninety-six feet perpen- 
dicular, through alternate beds of clay, and loose gravel 
and sand, with a breadth of upward of three hundred 
feet at the top. Northward the eye loses it in the dis- 
tance, as it runs towards the fall of the Tula : and south- 
ward, it appears like a deep groove, stretching straight 
across the plain, towards the northeastern angle of Lake 
Zumpango ; beyond which you descry the Cerro de Cris- 
tobal ; and, far in the distance, the snowy summits of 
Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl. From one extremity to 
the other the length of the desague exceeds 67,000 feet, 
or upward of twelve miles. 

At the time we visited it, a most insignificant stream 
was passing to the northward ; and it appeared to us 
probable that the quantity of rubbish brought down into 
the cavity by the crumbling beds of gravel above, and 
the washing of the clayey strata, might become a serious 
impediment in course of time, if not attended to. There 
is no doubt that this costly enterprise has so far answered 
the purpose for which it was undertaken ; yet should an 
extraordinary but yet possible chain of circumstances 



MEXICO. 



1G7 



conspire to raise the southern lakes to an unusual level, 
the danger to the capital would not be lessened. 

After thus spending the morning in the survey of this 
great work, we prepared to return by the direct road to 
Mexico, eleven leagues distant. Guautitlan is a consid- 
erable town, with a fine church, and curious old colon- 
naded buildings, lying in a valley at the northern side of 
that spur of hills which connects the Cerro de Cristobal 
with the main eastern branch of the Sierra Madre. The 
river of that name is properly a tributary of Lake Zum- 
pango, though I believe its waters now pass at once into 
the desague. It is the most powerful stream in the val- 
ley of Mexico. 

The passage of the ridge to the town of Tanepantla 
presented nothing very worthy of note ; but, when in 
continuing our route through the cultivated fields in its 
vicinity, the view upon the opening plain, lake, and wide 
panorama of mountains, with the domes of the city illu- 
minated by the declining sun, again unfolded itself to us, 
we were at a loss for language to express our sense of 
its indescribable beauty. 

Our amusing excursion had been but of four days' 
duration. 



LETTER VIII. 

We found, on our return to the city, after the excur- 
sion in the environs as detailed in my last, that the good 
humour of the inhabitants, which I have described as 
a little frozen during Lent, was undergoing a gradual 
thaw. 

The government of the country had repented its stern 
conduct to the votaries of Terpsichore, Euterpe, and 
Thalia, and the long train of petty artists attached to the 
corps (Topera. It had graciously revoked the edict of 
banishment — had advanced a part of the money justly 
claimed by the contract — and had agreed to favour with 



168 



MEXICO. 



its countenance a certain number of further representa- 
tions. Moreover, personified by a boxful of gaudily 
dressed officials and employes, it consented to wag its 
long ears in approbation, while Pellegrini agitated her 
larynx in the character of Semiramis; and to clap its 
hands at the sight of the sexagenarian Galli, tightly 
braced up to perform the role of the lithe and active 
scoundrel Figaro. All the world went to the opera ! 

And all the w 7 orld went to the bullfights — and we 
went too ; and, the butchery apart, the scene presented 
in the great amphitheatre, not far from the Alameda de 
las Vigas, was an animating and beautiful one. 

The form and arrangement of the wooden structure 
need not be very minutely described. It contains the 
usual gradations of covered galleries and uncovered 
ranges of seats, to afford fitting accommodation to both 
rich and poor. There are four great tiers of lodges 
with subdivisions, capable of containing thirty thousand 
people. We may have seen ten thousand collected 
there of all degrees, from the presiding alcalde and his 
fellows, to the half-naked guachinango ; damas, pay- 
sanos, poblanitas — individuals of every hue and breed, 
for the diversity of which Mexico is pre-eminent.* The 
brilliancy of colouring and great variety of costumes 
visible throughout the assemblage ; and the intense blue 
of the cloudless sky above ; the masses of light and 
shadow resting upon the domes and broad walls of a large 
church — which is the only object without visible from 
the interior of the amphitheatre — produced a picture 
of great beauty ; without even taking into account 

* The population of New Spain consists of seven distinct classes, be- 
sides people of recent Asiatic origin. 

1. The Gachupin — the full-blood European, or more properly the 
Spaniard, whose numbers are now very inconsiderable, having dwindled 
down since the revolution from 80,000 to probably not more than 10,000. 

2. Creoles of European extraction, 1,000,000. 

3. Mestizzoes, the offspring of the European and Indian, 2,000,000. 

4. Mulattoes, the offspring of Europeans and Negroes, 400,000. 

5. Aboriginal Indians, numbering from three to four millions. 

6. African Negroes and their descendants, 100,000. 

7. Zamboes, the offspring of Negro and Indian, 2,000,000. 
To these, about 15,000 European foreigners are to be added. 



MEXICO. 



169 



the scenes enacted upon the spacious arena at your 
feet. 

A very detailed account of a bullfight would be no 
novelty to you, the ceremony having been described and 
sung, in prose and verse, usque ad nauseam. If it is a 
brutal and heartless exhibition in Spain, where, after all, 
it is attended with some risk to the parties engaged 
from the strength and vigour of the noble animal that 
is the object of the sport — it is so here in a tenfold de- 
gree ; as of all bulls I ever saw, the Mexican is the 
weakest and the most spiritless. Instead of the com- 
pact concentration of animal strength visible in the mas- 
sive form, nervous limbs, short neck, and majestic port 
of a European bull— English, Spanish, or Swiss — you 
see animals turned into the arena, with a demeanour un- 
worthy of even a decent cow — hollow-backed, long- 
legged, long-horned, nerveless animals, whose first im- 
pulse is to get out of the way, and whose courage is the 
courage of desperation. 

The pomp and circumstances of the spectacle — the 
costumes of the different orders of actors — the picadores, 
bandarillos, and matadores, are precisely the same as are 
seen in the mother country. 

The first trumpet call from the alcalde's box gives a 
token to the soldiers — who, with a military band, are al- 
ways in attendance — to clear the arena of the sovereign 
people, some hundreds of whom always take care to re- 
main strolling over its surface till the very last moment, 
all for the honour, apparently, of receiving an energetic 
application of the butt end of a musket. This we saw 
dispensed right and left, sans ceremonie. 

The second signal brings in the whole of the dramatis 
personae, horse and foot, led onward in procession by 
the mounted lancemen or picadores, and terminated by 
the butcher, garbed decently in white, and an humble 
but gallant youth trundling a wheelbarrow. After salu- 
ting the alcalde, and making the circuit, they separate 

r 



170 



MEXICO. 



into groups. The picadores place themselves about the 
mouth of the passage which leads to the den ; the ban- 
darillos and matadores recline against the breastwork 
which separates the arena from the circular passage at 
the foot of the lower seats ; while the train of six mules, 
gayly caparisoned, three abreast, vanish through one 
of the gateways ; and are followed by the spotless 
butcher and the wheelbarrow man — and all await the 
given signal. 

It sounds ! and out comes the bull ! Perhaps he gives 
a push, en passant, at one of the picadores, but most prob- 
ably not. If he does so, neither horse nor man are the 
worse for it. for the former is fully protected from the 
horns of the animal by the strong leather caparison, 
which are, moreover, considerately tipped to prevent 
bloodshed : and the latter takes good care to run no risk. 
The generality of the bulls, of which eight are despatched 
on each representation, did their best to avoid the 
contest ; and in several instances proved their nimble- 
ness by jumping the breastwork. When teased beyond 
endurance, they would fight feebly, and perhaps over- 
throw a horse and rider, but it was evidently mere 
play to their opponents. When the picadores could ex- 
tract no more courage from the exhausted animal, the 
footmen plied their childish and inglorious game of petty 
annoyance and torture, with barbed darts and fireworks, 
till, thoroughly spent and jaded, the poor brute was 
given over to the matador, whose clumsy but pompous 
attempt at giving a death wound, had almost in every 
instance to be seconded by the butcher. The clever 
professional coup de grace of the latter was really admin- 
istered in mercy. The mules then galloped in — were 
attached to the dead animal, and scoured as quickly out, 
again followed, as before, by the nimble wheelbarrow 
man whose spadeful of sand had meantime obliterated 
all signs of the tragedy. In short, there is nothing in a 
Mexican bullfight to tempt a second visit, and nothing 
distinguishing it from those in Spain, if I except one 
custom, which I should judge to be peculiar to this coun- 
try, though 1 may be mistaken. 



MEXICO. 



171 



Whenever it happens that a bull is so averse to afford 
sport that he can neither be coaxed nor irritated to 
fight, but shuns all encounters, a cry of caula ! caula I 
(tail ! tail !) is raised by the populace. 

On a note of approval issuing from the alcalde's 
trumpet, two or more horsemen, better mounted than the 
ordinary picadores, and distinguished from them by being 
without weapons, are seen to rush forward, at full speed, 
in pursuit of the recreant bull, who very naturally 
runs for his life with fresh vigour, round and round the 
arena. 

The most adroit of his pursuers, on coming up to his 
left flank, catches hold of the tail with the right hand, 
and passing it under his own right leg, gives it a turn 
round the raised pummel of the saddle, at the same time 
that he suddenly wheels his horse round at right angles 
by the pressure of the powerful bit, a manoeuvre which 
rarely fails to throw the bull on his back. This may ap- 
pear very surprising ; but a moment's reflection will 
show you, if you put yourself in the bull's place, that the 
feat can hardly fail of being successful, provided you run 
very fast, and your pursuer contrives to get a very firm 
hold of your tail. 

It was now verging towards the middle of April, and 
the advance of the season combined with other consid- 
erations to make us fix our departure from Vera Cruz 
by the New- York packet of the first of May. 

To effect this in the most prudential manner, now that 
the yellow fever was rife on the coast, was incumbent 
upon men who, after all done and said, valued their 
lives, and were looking towards home after an absence 
of upward of two years. 

For many days it was impossible to see our way 
clearly, on account of the conflicting opinions in the cap- 
ital, as to the precise time of sailing. There was a vari- 
ation of eight or ten days in these rumours ; at the same 
time that we w ? ere counselled on all hands not to descend 



172 



MEXICO. 



into the infected region one hour before it was impera- 
tively necessary. 

At length all seemed arranged. We despatched the 
bulk of our baggage to the coast, by the arrieros ; the 
precise hour of sailing seemed fixed, and determining to 
take a circuitous road to Puebla de los Angeles, we 
counted upon arriving at Jalapa some days before the 
time specified, and on remaining there till the very last 
moment before we should be obliged to go on board. 

In defiance of the businesslike duties which occupied 
us the latter days of our stay, however, I contrived to 
extend my knowledge of the vicinity of the capital by 
various excursions of a greater or lesser range from the 
barriers. And from these, you may pardon my singling 
out one, which I made to the Desierto, a ruined and for- 
saken Carmelite monastery, perched on the sierra to the 
westward, about seven leagues distant from the capital. 
My companion for the day was an English resident of 
the city ; and two mounted domestics completed our 
company. 

We left the city at sunrise, and passing along the line 
of the aqueduct to Chapultepec, followed the road to the 
left towards Tacubaya. We skirted that beautiful vil- 
lage, and began the ascent of the sterile, upland tract 
immediately behind, by the main road leading across the 
mountains to the elevated plateau of Toluca.* 

The bareness of the first part of the ascent is extreme; 
and cultivation is confined to a few plantations of maguey 
in the vicinity of the scattered villages, or on the imme- 
diate border of the rivulets flowing down the barrancas, 
with which the flanks of the mountains are seen to be 
everywhere furrowed. All these slopes were once cov- 
ered with forests, but the heedless destruction of the 

* The table land of Toluca lies 8,530 feet over the Pacific, and nearly 
eleven hundred over the valley of Mexico. It is the most elevated of 
the four principal plateaux of Mexico, but produces fine crops of ma^ 
guey and maise. 



THE DESIERTO, 



173 



timber by the conquerors has entailed the loss of the 
soil, which they nourished and protected from the dry 
air of the climate and the effects of the abundant rains 
of the wet season. 

Shortly after passing the village of Santa Fe, we quit- 
ted the beaten track to Toluca, and descended into a 
deep barranca to the left ; continuing to follow it for 
some miles, till the broad ravine dwindled to a green 
upland glen. We now reached the wooded region of 
the mountain ; and,iu fine, struck into the ancient paved 
road leading to the Desierto. In former times this route 
afforded a comparatively easy access to the inhabitants 
of the capital, with whom, at certain seasons, a visit to 
this monastery was an object of great importance. The 
calzada, though in perfect preservation, and confined be- 
tween low walls, is solitary enough now. It winds up- 
ward through woods, which, in their character and pro- 
ductions, reminded me more of England than those of 
any part of New Spain I had seen. Thickets of roses 
and wild brier occupied the ground under the lofty de- 
ciduous trees ; while the occurrence of little patches of 
greensward, covered with a species of daisy, and many 
other flowers which are characteristic of our own climate, 
added no little to the resemblance. 

On attaining the elevation of the little shelf, upon 
which the monastery is situated, towards the head of a 
steep gully in the breast of the sierra, the pine begins to 
predominate, and probably in former times it was the 
principal forest tree of the whole chain. We found the 
Desierto situated amid a wilderness of flowering shrubs, 
.which, since the hand of time has unroofed a great por- 
tion of the structure, have shed their seeds into the courts, 
till they were positively choked with bushes. Nor was 
the elder here wanting — that never-failing parasite of 
the gray ruined abbeys and castles of England. 

The architecture of the building, which was erected 
soon after the conquest, is by no means distinguished for 

p 2 



174 



THE DESIERTO. 



elegance ; strength having been evidently much more 
valuable in the eyes of the builders. 

The distribution of the different parts was that usual 
in monastic erections, and the whole style heavy in the 
extreme. The cloisters and many of the cells still re- 
tained their strong-arched roof, and the stucco on their 
walls. 

Here, sheltered in the wooded hills, far away from 
the great roads; perched a thousand feet above the broad 
plain, and its glistening lakes and splendid city, with 
many a league of rough hill and deep barranca between, 
it might have been supposed that the barefooted brethren 
would surely have been permitted to lead their life of 
retirement and reflection in undisturbed quiet ; and that 
their bells would continue to wake the echoes of the 
hills, as long as their faith was the faith of the thousands 
in the plain below : but no ! they were richly endowed ; 
and throughout their former seat it was evident that the 
hand of violence, more than that of time, had produced 
the utter ruin visible on every side. The view from 
the Desierto, owing to the peculiarity of the situation be- 
tween two hills, is confined almost altogether to the sur- 
rounding woods. 

A solitary family of Indian woodcutters occupied one 
of the out buildings ; and here upon the grass, under the 
shade of a group of ancient trees, we luxuriated for several 
hours in the delicious air of the mountains, till the heat 
of the day being on the wane, w r e awoke our sleeping 
mozos, and mounting our horses, began our descent to- 
wards the city. 

The view which burst upon us, as, escaping from the 
ravine of the Desierto, we gained a projecting woody 
knoll on the side of the mountain, impending over the 
great barranca before mentioned, was of matchless mag- 
nificence. The day had been altogether cloudless; but 
during our ascent, the sun shone too brightly ; and a 
rich purple haze had thrown a kind of veil over the more 



THE DESIERTO. 



175 



distant parts of the plain, and the great chain to the east- 
ward. 

Now the whole scene before us was bathed in a flood 
of clear light, and the forms and colouring of the most 
distant objects were distinctly visible through an atmo- 
sphere of the greatest transparency and purity. 

Beyond the broken country at our feet, and the fertile 
region, we saw the broad expanse of plain, stretching 
from the mountains behind Guadaloupe, far towards the 
south, with its groups of volcanic hills breaking the 
monotony of the surface. Directly in advance — the 
centre of the vast picture — lay the miniature domes and 
towers of the capital, distinct, from their number and 
colouring; beyond, the blue and broad surface of Lake 
Tezcuco, from end to end, with the Penon de los Banos 
upon the shore, and the great mole of San Cristobal at 
the northern extremity. Exactly over the city, at the 
base of the eastern chain, great as was the distance, we 
could distinctly recognise the towns of Tezcuco and 
Huejutla, and the Hacienda of Chapingo — the dark line 
of the Contador, and even still farther removed, the 
form of the great pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan. 
The latter could not be less than forty miles distant in a 
straight line. 

How many times in descending, at every fresh turn, 
did we draw our bridles to gaze upon this noble and re- 
markable landscape, which increased in beauty hour by 
hour ! I shall never forget the view presented as we 
gained the last step of the descent before entering Tacu- 
baya, when that beautiful verdant region of gardens and 
orchards in which it and the neighbouring villages lay 
opened at our feet, and the Archiepiscopal Palace, the 
noble church, and the hill and palace of Chapultepec, 
formed the middle ground to the more distant prospect, 
the main features of which, though diminished in extent, 
remained the same : nor, as sunset approached, can I 
forget the gorgeous and inimitable colouring of the great 
vista to the southeast, where the receding mountains 
rose one above the other, in purple, violet, and gold, till 



176 



SAN AUGUSTUS. 



crowned by the towering snow-clad summit of the Great 
Volcano, gleaming in the evening sky. 

To the last hour of our stay in the city of Mexico, w T e 
made ample experience of the instability and fickleness 
of the people with whom we had to do. On the very 
morning of our proposed departure, after endless troubles 
in getting together the bipeds and quadrupeds deemed 
necessary for our journey, Mariano's defection was an- 
nounced with many signs of sorrow by Garcia; and in 
despair, we had to hire the first rogue who offered him- 
self, on his own terms. 

However, set out we did, on the evening of April the 
19th, our party consisting of our three selves, Mr. E., an 
English artist, and his domestic — our two mozos, Garcia 
and Jose Maria — and lastly, an arriero with three beasts 
of burden. Our fat mule Macho, who had never stirred 
out of Don Floresco's stable during our month's stay in 
the city, issued forth as fat and sleek as a dormouse, 
and testified his joy at his escape by kicking every one 
who approached him. 

A little after dusk we entered San Augustin de los 
Cuestos, and found a tolerable posada, where we hired 
our apartments, and spent the night. I have surely not 
omitted to describe what the traveller's accommodation 
in these Mexican inns consists of — four walls, a roof, and 
a mud floor — a table sometimes, but not often — a bench 
perchance, but very seldom — and very frequently nothing 
to eat but what you bring with you, and nothing to drink 
but bad water — with a convenient answer to every ob- 
servation or question, 44 Quien sabe ?" and to every civil 
requisition, " No hai ; ?iada, signor l n 

I say nothing of our array and mode of equipment, as 
they were precisely the same as on our upward journey 
from the coast, with the exception, as you will remark, 
of a diminished train of baggage and baggage mules. 
Our present arriero reminded us of Espindola, by his 
dogged honesty and general desire to oblige ; though in 
other respects very inferior to him. Garcia was not a 



SAN AUGUSTIN. 



177 



bad representative of the valiant Julian, as he was just 
as much inclined to act the rapacious villain, to get fud- 
dled, and to vapour about his deeds of arms. 1 believe, 
however, that he was not quite so cowardly ; and would 
have fought very heroically if he found it absolutely im- 
possible to run away, or save his life by any other means. 
Jose Maria took the place of Miguel. 

All accounts coincided in affording us the perspective 
of being mercilessly robbed in the course of the follow- 
ing day, either in ascending the mountain, by the bands 
of Tlalpam, which of course keep a sharp eye upon the 
parties arriving from the capital — or in the neighbour- 
hood of the Cruz del Marques on the summit, by the 
band of Toluca, which there finds a convenient lurking- 
place in the pine forest ; or by the band of Cuernavaca, 
which plies its profession in the broken ground on the 
steep western slope of the sierra. This was worse than 
being between hawk and buzzard. 

To give you an idea what sort of bargains are made in 
this country, 1 may mention that each of our valets 
had been hired at the rate of eighteen dollars a month, 
plus four reals a day for their food. Further, we were 
bound by our contract to allow them at their dismissal at 
Jalapa, twelve dollars each for their return to the capi- 
tal, and a horse ; or, if they should prefer it, a seat in 
the stage to Mexico, value thirty dollars. To our arrie- 
ro we gave eight dollars a day as long as he was in our 
service. 

You might suppose that ordinary cupidity might have 
been satisfied by such favourable terms ; but no, by the 
assistance of Mr. E., who was an old traveller in this 
strange country, we detected, at the very outset, a sly 
contrivance to make us pay for a huge account of tortil- 
las, pulque, Chile, agua ardiente, and so forth, which they 
demolished daily. This defeat, and our determination 
to set off before sunrise, soured the temper of our re- 
tainers for the first hours of the day ; but they seemed 
subsequently to have made up their minds to smile at 



178 



PASS OF THE CRUZ DEL MARQUES. 



grief and disappointment, and return to their ordinary 
gayety and good humour. 
But, en avant ! 

The day had hardly dawned, when riding past the pic- 
turesque church of San Augustin, we were to be seen 
commencing the ascent of the mountains in the rear, by 
the great route of the Cruz del Marques, by which com- 
munication is kept up between the valley of Mexico and 
the states towards the Pacific to the west and southwest. 
It is impassable for carriages ; and the whole trade is 
carried on by means of vast trains of mules. As we as- 
cended, the morning broke over the summits of the 
mountains of Tlaloc, brightening the snows of the volca- 
noes, and gradually lighting up the barren tract of the 
pedrigal to the left, and the vast extent of plain, and the 
lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco, which lay behind us. 
The huge flanks of the Ajusco soon hid the part of the 
valley in which the capital is situated from our view. 

Again and again, as we ascended, we turned to look 
back upon this scene, and it was with something like 
grief I saw it vanish for ever from my eyes. It seemed 
to me as if a splendid volume had been laid before me, 
and that I had been permitted to glance at its title and 
decorations, but had seen it shut in my face just as I had 
addressed myself to read. 

Some hours elapsed before we reached the summit of 
the pass. 

The road winds over the unequal surface of the moun- 
tain for many leagues before it passes the shoulder of the 
Ajusco. That noble mountain rises to the right, with 
sides clothed with dark pine forests, and furrowed by 
deep barrancas. From its highest summit, the height of 
which I have elsewhere indicated, it is said that the 
Western Ocean in the vicinity of Acapulco can be dis- 
tinguished. On the most elevated ridge of the sierra, 
many short truncated cones mark the different craters 
by which the floods of lava, and beds of pumice, pebbles, 



PASS OF THE CRUZ DEL MARQUES. 179 



and sand which cover a great portion of the porphyritic 
trap and basalt composing the cordillera issued forth. 

From my passing observations I should suppose that 
some of these craters have ejected water as well as fire ; 
and particularly the cone which the traveller leaves to 
the right in traversing the ridge. It has evidently thrown 
its lavas on both directions ; and report says, that one 
immense stream proceeding from it, or from a neighbour- 
ing cone of the Ajusco chain, may be traced down the 
successive steps of the table land to the very shore of the 
Pacific 

In process of time we reached the Cruz del Marques,* 
a solid stone cross erected by Cortez, to indicate the 
bounds of the territory assigned to him by Montezuma. 

The shade of the pine forest, which still clothes a great 
part of the upper region of the mountain, was grateful 
to us ; at the same time that it was the most perilous 
part of our voyage, so far as the probability of our being 
robbed went. We passed, however, without molesta- 
tion, retaining possession of our watches and purses, and 
the cherished opinion of our being invincible. 

If, in quitting the valley of Mexico at daybreak, we 
had to complain of the cold, noon brought with it a de- 
gree of heat for which we were quite unprepared, and it 
grew in intensity as we descended the steep face of the 
mountain to the southward. The western slopes of the 
cordillera of Mexico are far more sudden and inclined 
than those on the side of the gulf, and the consequence 
is, that by the route we were now following, after a jour- 
ney of a few hours' travel, you descend to a level, to 
reach which, on the opposite side, you must travel for 
several days. 

We had not descended far upon the southwestern 
slope, before we descried the sea of broad and yellow 
plain, which here formed the second step of the table 



* About 9,500 feet above the sea. 



180 



CUERNAVACA. 



land, stretching into the bright haze as far as the eye 
could penetrate. 

As we proceeded, the heat increased ; and, as we 
wound along the edge of the ravines, the road became 
almost impassable for the horses, from the quantity of 
rock and stone with w 7 hich they were strewed : and 
right glad were we, after passing through a picturesque 
village, at the foot of the mountain, to find ourselves and 
our train housed in a comfortable posada, in the town 
of Cuernavaca, after an uninterrupted ride of sixteen 
leagues, without halt or refreshment. 

I think we treated both ourselves and our quadrupeds 
with unusual severity on the occasion. But there seemed 
to be no alternative. 

In resolving to take the circuitous route upon which 
w r e had now set out, we had a further end in view than 
that of merely extending our observations a little, by see- 
ing a part of the country which was less known and less 
hackneyed, than the direct and ordinary one from the cap- 
ital to Puebla. Ever since we had entered New Spain, 
it had been a pet scheme to visit certain remarkable re- 
mains, existing in the vicinity of Cuernavaca. I refer to 
the fortified hill and palace of Xochicalco, or the " House 
of Flowers," of which little was known, but what was to 
be culled from a small pamphlet in Spanish, written many 
years ago, from which Humboldt probably gives the few 
facts mentioned in his Researches. He was unable to 
visit Xochicalco himself. 

Our inquiries in Mexico with regard to the precise po- 
sition and character of these ruins, were productive of 
no kind of certain information. Among all our acquaint- 
ances, European and native, we could not find more than 
two or three who had ever heard of their existence ; and 
further, u Quien sabe V was the answer to everything. 

However, hurried as we found we should be, if we in- 
tended to leave Vera Cruz on the first of May, we kept 
steadily to our purpose ; and, no sooner had we re- 
freshed ourselves by ablutions and a hearty meal, fol- 
lowed by a basin of excellent lemon ice, and had seen 



CTJERNAVACA, 



181 



the termination of a savage affray in the opposite house, 
in which braining with clubs and stones was the fashion, 
than we set about our inquiries in considerable confi- 
dence, as there could be no question but the ruins, after 
all, were to be found in this neighbourhood. Our host 
and his neighbours were first applied to. Quien sabef 
guien sabe ? was all we got for our pains. We went to 
a young merchant, the only European resident of any 
standing here : he had never heard of the existence of 
such a place. At length we determined to make use of 
a note of introduction to the principal cura of the town ; 
and here we were more successful. He knew that Xo- 
chicalco existed, but he had never visited it. According 
to him, it lay among a group of hills which he pointed 
out to us from his window, across the great plain, called 
the Cerro de Xochicalco ; and he promised to furnish us 
with a guide for the following day, and perhaps to ac- 
company us himself. He stated the distance was per- 
haps three, or at most four leagues. 

Jaded as we were, we set about our preparations with 
alacrity. As our speedy advance to the coast was now 
a matter of absolute necessity, we determined to spare 
our horses as far as practicable: and, with infinite pains, 
borrowed two others, in order to leave them to their re- 
pose for the time of our absence. We decided to set off 
at daybreak, leaving Garcia and the arriero to proceed 
with the mules to the town of Yautepec, six leagues dis- 
tant : with the intention, on our parts, after our anticipa- 
ted return from our excursion in the course of the after- 
noon, to take our fresh horses and follow them thither. 
Wise and good projects, but, like many human ones, vain 
nevertheless ! 

That a restless night should follow a day of excite- 
ment and exposure like the last, was not to be wondered 
at. The doubt which hung over our whole projects of 
advance to Vera Cruz, and our fate there, did not per- 
haps mend the matter ; and for my part I own, that at 
dawn, I arose from the floor of the chamber where we 

Q 



182 



CUERNAVACA. 



•were all stowed together with bags and baggage, fever- 
ish and unrefreshed. 

Just as we rode out of the gateway of our posada, the 
first sunbeams were shining upon the white summit of 
Popocatepetl, which now appeared exactly in the east. 

Cuernavacais most nobly situated, on a tongue of land, 
girdled on three sides by tremendous barrancas ; in 
which, matchless sterility, and the exuberant and broad- 
leaved vegetation of the tropics, are blended together in 
an extraordinary manner. It possesses a large church 
and prison, and many other buildings, the architectural 
details of which are uncommonly picturesque. I never 
saw a country where there were richer subjects for the 
artist, than that in which our rambles were placed for 
some days to come. 

The mule path which we followed, led us for some 
time along the edge of the great barranca to the west of 
the town, in a direction nearly due south. But after 
traversing it by a long descent, and longer ascent, and 
gaining a village where we took a second guide — the 
first, furnished by the cura, not being acquainted with 
the road — we crossed a band of sugar and cotton planta- 
tions ; and, entering upon the uncultivated stony plains, 
bent our course a little more to the westward, towards the 
cerro in advance. Our borrowed horses Were wretched 
animals ; and I well remember the hard trot of the ema- 
ciated beast which I had the misfortune to bestride ; and 
the galling position in which I was pinioned by a badly 
constructed Mexican saddle. 

By some arrangement of the cura's, which we did not 
then comprehend, our party had been increased as we 
left Cuernavaca, by a fine, hardy, bold-looking, armed 
horseman, who kept us company the whole day, whether 
as guide or as companion we scarcely knew ; though on 
our return we had a hint given us to pay him a few dol- 
lars in quality of the first. He was not talkative ; at the 
same time there was nothing uncourteous in his reserve, 
or general bearing, which I can best liken to that of a 
stalwart and stark moss trooper. We had our suspicions 



THE PLAINS. 



183 



at the time that he was a known bandit, whose fidelity 
and safeguard the good cura had thus thought proper to 
secure ; and we have since had them verified, and found 
that this was really the case. 

The plains over which we now moved, were more 
barren and inhospitable in their character than I can 
describe. The surface, strewed with loose scoria and 
rock, and brown as the sands of Arabia, produced not 
a blade of grass ; but reflected the hot rays of the sun 
with a glare which blistered and excoriated the face and 
hands. And the fervid, glowing, furnacelike heat of the 
sun I shall never forget ! There it hung in the heavens 
like a blazing ball of copper, shedding its beams through 
a yellow haze, which, at an early hour of the day, 
spread a thin transparent veil over the vast plains and 
their towering mountain boundary ; and as it rose to the 
zenith, throwing our shadows under our feet, it scorched 
the skin like fire. In vain the eye was cast abroad in 
search of relief ; every object far and near glared with the 
reflected brilliance — not a tree, not a rock, not an over- 
hanging bank in the shadowless and thirsty land ! The 
yawning barranca, deep as it might be, formed but a 
focus, where the sun's rays were concentrated. The 
very hills in advance seemed to cast no shade. Opin- 
ions as to our distance from them, were hazarded and 
recanted again and again. They loomed in thin haze, 
till they appeared near at hand, while their lowest swell 
lay at the distance of many miles. And then the bar- 
rancas ! Though our previous travelling in this singular 
country had prepared us for this feature of the plains as 
well as of the mountain slopes, we had nowhere seen 
them upon the same scale. One of those we traversed 
this morning, of which no indication had been observed 
till we arrived at the very brink, took us an entire hour 
to traverse. Though water has undoubtedly been an 
agent in their formation, the origin of the greater number 
of those tremendous furrows in the surface of the table 
land is to be traced to the earthquake, and the sudden 
disruption of the strata by volcanic agency. You see 
many, in which the two sides, though furlongs apart, 



184 



XOCHICALCO. 



exhibit incontestable signs, that their jagged perpen- 
dicular walls were once in junction. Every Mexican 
traveller must have remarked the insidious manner in 
which many of these gulfs commence. In riding along 
the plains, you perhaps find yourself separated from the 
companion with whom you are conversing, by a crack 
or fissure of a few inches in breadth : you proceed care- 
lessly ; the rent gapes imperceptibly wider and wider; 
and increases in depth, till it imperatively demands your 
attention. Perhaps a very natural dislike to retrace 
your steps, and ignorance of the real nature and extent 
of the obstacle, induces you to keep your direction in 
search of its termination ; when, before you are aware, 
you find a hideous and impassable gulf yawning between 
you, delving deep for many miles into the face of the 
landscape, and no alternative left you but to return to its 
very source. I sketch from experience. Some of the 
largest barrancas I have described form beds for the 
scanty streams descending from the forested slopes of the 
neighbouring cordillera, and at one of these, about ten in 
the morning, we quenched for a moment the burning 
thirst of our party, men and horses. 

An hour after, we reached the base of the hills which 
apparently form a detached group in the table land. 
For many miles previously we had observed and re- 
peatedly crossed an ancient paved causeway, about eight 
feet in breadth, composed of large stones tightly wedged 
together, and running directly over plain and barranca* 
towards the hill of Xochicalco. 

The strange mould of the summit of the steep hill on 
our left, as we entered the group by a small valley, had 
long drawn our attention, as it appeared to be surrounded 
by a regular rampart ; but I incline to think that it may 
be the natural formation. 

At the termination of the little valley above mentioned, 
we arrived at length at the foot of the eminence which 
was the principal object of our excursion. 

The circuit of the hill of Xochicalco, or the House of 
Flowers, may perhaps measure three miles, and its per- 



XOCHICALCO. 



185 



pendicular height about three hundred feet. The opin- 
ion has been hazarded, that the whole mass is artificial ; 
but it is one I cannot entertain for a moment, as its whole 
position and general configuration shows it to be one of 
the group, though there is no doubt but its entire surface, 
great as it is, has been subjected to a general design, and 
cased from its summit to its base with artificial work. 
The decay of centuries, at the same time that it has in- 
jured many of the details, yet allows the general plan to 
be detected. Even the broad moat, which encircled the 
whole, remains perfectly distinct. 

Alighting from our horses at the foot of the hill, which 
is partially covered with dry brushwood and leafless 
trees, we scrambled upward from one stage to another, 
over the crumbling stonework, which, from its steepness 
occasionally, rendered advance difficult. Four terraces 
apparently, made the entire circuit at regular intervals 
of elevation, though occasionally they were not easy to 
detect, from the accumulation of rubbish. 

The intermediate slopes are covered with platforms, 
bastions, pyramidical and rectangular elevations and 
stages, one above the other, and other erections of which 
I can neither describe the exact forms nor guess their 
appropriation. It is evident that all were faced with 
the same uncemented stonework, and were accommo- 
dated to the natural moulding of the hill, which, how- 
ever far from regular, was conical in its general outlines. 
Upon a platform in connection with the highest terrace, 
we were obliged to leave our horses, before we climbed 
up a steep, stone-faced declivity, evidently pyramidical 
in its structure, to the summit. 

Thence we commanded a wide view over the neigh- 
bouring hills and plains — a scene of matchless sterility, 
glaring in the noonday sun ; and we now saw, that in 
addition to the paved road from the north which 1 have 
mentioned, there were others of precisely the same con- 
struction, running towards the " House of Flowers," as 
to a common centre, from other points of the compass. 

From the summit we proceeded to the northward into 
a hollow square, situated at a somewhat lower elevation, 

a 2 



186 



XOCHICALCO. 



in the centre of which we found the ruins of the remark- 
able altar, or teocalli, which has been the principal ob- 
ject of speculation or attention. 

Though evidently formed upon the same general prin- 
ciples with the other ancient pyramidal structures of 
New Spain, it differs from every other erection of the 
class hitherto discovered in Mexico — the pyramid of 
Papantla excepted — by being wholly constructed of 
large regularly hewn and symmetrically laid masses of 
hard and richly sculptured rock, instead of layers of un- 
burn! bricks, or piles of earth and stone. 

In its perfect state, which it preserved till a compara- 
tively recent date, it is said to have consisted of seven 
distinct stories, diminishing of course in size, but of pre- 
cisely similar construction. Of these we now only found 
the lower story, and portions of the second, remaining in 
their original position ; the hewn stones composing the 
remainder having been wantonly moved and carried off, 
little more than a century ago, by the proprietors of the 
sugar plantations in the neighbourhood, for the founda- 
tion of their haciendas. 

The base lines of the lowest square, which correspond 
to the cardinal points, may be fifty feet in length ; and 
the height of the first story from the present level of the 
hollow square in which it stands, eight or nine feet. 

One remarkable fact is, that instead of the wall rising 
at right angles from the base, it inclines inward, to the 
height of six feet, with a variation of perhaps fifteen de- 
grees from the perpendicular, when the completion of 
the story is effected by perpendicular masses, sculptured 
in like manner, being placed so as to project out several 
inches from the line of those immediately below ; a rude 
analogy of outline with the Egyptian architecture, that 
must immediately strike you. It is to be supposed that 
every story was constructed in a similar manner. 

The chief characteristics of the sculpture, are its de- 
cision of outline and boldness of relief. The hardness 
of the dark basaltic stone in which they are cut, has pre- 
served its freshness without the slightest appearance of 
decay. 

To describe the character of the isolated figures, is 



XOCHICALCO. 



187 



out of my power. The majority of the hieroglyphic 
signs— for such they doubtless are — resembled nothing 
in heaven or earth ; but in many parts I detected the 
clothed human figures, seemingly reposing in the Asiatic 
manner. 

Whether each face of the structure bore throughout 
similar devices, placed in exactly similar positions, I do 
not recollect positively : I think not ; at the same time 
it was certainly the case at the angles, where some of the 
richest and most singular figures were to be found. The 
ornament which has been described as "a crocodile 
spouting water," is of very large size, and must have 
been repeated eight times in each story, by being sym- 
metrically placed at either extremity of the inclined base- 
ment of the structure. 

As to its bearing resemblance to " a crocodile spout- 
ing water," that is a mere fancy ; it may as well por- 
tray the head of a griffin, or of any other fanciful mon- 
ster ; and what the ancient observer interpreted as a jet 
of water, was, in my eyes, intended to represent a double 
tongue. 

We were now nearly blinded by the heat and glare ; 
and after half an hour's survey, and reiterated but abor- 
tive attempts at a detailed sketch, I was glad to join my 
companions in beating a retreat ; for the vertical sun's 
rays left no side of the building in shade, and the trees 
and shrubs which grew on the borders of the enclosure, 
and upon the ruins, were leafless and desolate. 

Masses of hewn stone were strewed about the base, 
and lay in disorder on the building itself. In the centre 
of the teocalli was an excavation, but evidently made in 
modern times, probably in a search after hidden treas- 
ure ; and yet, that the second story of the pyramid, at 
least, had contained a chamber, I satisfied myself, by dis- 
covering on one of the western faces, among the base 
stones of that story, which had not been moved from 
their original position, one mass, which, both by its situa- 
tion and the fact of its being sculptured on two of its ad- 
joining faces, plainly indicated its having served as a 
doorpost. Its fellow was not in its place, but I have not 
the slightest doubt of the fact. 



188 



XOCHICALCO. 



After leaving this interesting locality, we made a wide 
circuit of the mount to visit certain subterraneous exca- 
vations, entering deep into a shoulder of the hill, which, 
to judge by appearances, has been almost entirely cased 
over by the hand of man. 

How far these caverns run under ground, none can 
pretend to say ; our circumstances compelled us to rest 
satisfied with ascertaining the fact of their existence, and 
that there was every sign of their being wholly artificial. 

The hill of Xochicalco may still be considered un- 
broken ground for the antiquarian ; and there is every 
probability of its rewarding a really careful and atten- 
tive survey. The details of the group of hills and the 
surrounding country should not be neglected. Our ex- 
perience may be so far useful to our successors, whoever 
they may be, as to show, that here, plenty of time, and 
the means of shelter and refreshment, are absolutely requi- 
site for the excursion. Situated as we were, and little 
as we positively effected, I wonder that we did so much. 
By the route we had come, we agreed that it must be 
seven leagues from Cuernavaca. 

I need not tell you that there is neither the shadow of 
a tradition as to the people whose hands reared this sin- 
gular monument, nor of the purposes to which it was 
devoted. I hazard no opinion either as to one or the 
other. 

The general traveller will of course point to the Tol- 
tecs ; the more learned or pedantic may suggest that it 
is referable to the Zapotecs, and the probability is that 
they are the work of neither one nor the other. 

Whether the " House of Flowers" was made subser- 
vient to self-defence, and formed a stronghold ; or was 
a hill of delight set apart for the habitation of a monarch ; 
or a high place, where the religious mysteries of a people 
were performed ; or a spot chosen for a union of all these 
objects, it is still one of the most extraordinary localities 
in New Spain, and deserves much more attention than it 
has hitherto received. 



THE PLAINS. 



189 



Not a drop of water was to be found on the hill, or in 
the vicinity ; and when we mounted our horses in the 
ditch, and began our retreat across the plain, we were 
all panting with thirst and fatigue — none more than my- 
self, whose feverish night had badly fitted for the fatigue 
of a- day like that I am describing. The nearest Indian 
village lay at a considerable distance out of the direct 
road, but we were all decided to repair thither. As to 
our going forward that evening to Yautepec from Cuer- 
navaca, that was at once acknowledged to be impracti- 
cable. How shall I paint that arid stony plain, or that 
blazing sun — the blood seemed to boil in my veins. 

The moment we reached the village, we threw our- 
selves off our horses, and rushed with one accord into 
the first palmetto-thatched hut, much to the terror of the 
female occupants, who had hardly time to hide their bag 
of maize, and get assurance to tell the customary lies. 
"Water — water, give us some water!" No hai! "Is 
there none in the village ?" No hai! "Any pulque?" 
No hai ! " Any fruit V r No hai f — no hai I — no hai ! — 
nada ! nada ! signores ! None of us asked for a Chile 
pepper ! We were almost in despair. 

But shade was a luxury, even though it brought no cool- 
ness; and we lay down upon the floor. Good words 
and cigaritas, however, soon had their effect : and water 
was found — first in thimblefuls, then in sufficient quan- 
tity to bring some degree of comfort both to our- 
selves and our horses ; and at last we got some frijoles, 
tortillas, lemons, and a small lump of sugar. The poor 
beasts, who, bad as they were, had suffered with much 
patience, equally with ourselves, were invigorated by a 
few bundles of maize stalks. 

We staid here three hours, and then resumed our re- 
turn. In the neighbourhood of the village there was 
some slight cultivation, and the direction which we took 
over the plains in returning, at the same time that we 
avoided two of the most extensive barrancas, brought us 
to more than one small stream, where the scattered trees 
afforded some solace to the eye, and a moment's shelter 
from the sun. On the banks of one of them, we saw 



190 



THE PLAINS. 



with indignation a number of the sculptured blocks, 
from the Teocalli of Xochicalco, lying half buried in the 
soil. 

The haze which I had remarked in the earlier hours 
of the day continued to clothe all objects, without abso- 
lutely hiding them ; but the outlines of the more distant 
ranges were so indistinct, that we could scarcely trace 
them. Such was the difficult character of the surface, 
and the continual checks we met with from barrancas, 
that the day was far spent before we arrived at the brink 
of the magnificent gorge which forms the intrenchment 
of Cuernavaca on the w 7 est. Jn the morning we had 
crossed it many miles farther down. It is splendidly 
varied in its character, and in the light of the sun, setting 
in gold and purple over the plain behind us, formed a 
magnificent picture. 

The twilight fell upon us before we had extricated 
ourselves from the depth of the abyss, and when we did 
so by gaining the farther edge, the moon was shining 
without rival in the heaven. 

I cannot describe to you the delicious feelings which 
came over us, as we felt the cooling night air fanning our 
temples, while riding through the rich and luxuriant 
groves and gardens in the outskirts of Cuernavaca, 
which we reached a quarter of an hour after. 

What a strange machine the human body is. All this 
positive suffering seemed to be forgotten as soon as it 
was past ! We supped as usual, drank inordinate quan- 
tities of ice — a luxury rendered a common one to the 
inhabitants of this torrid clime, by the vicinity of the 
volcanoes — threw ourselves upon our serapis on the floor, 
and the next morning rose, with both bodies and minds 
refreshed and invigorated, to enter upon another day's 
adventure. 

The plains of Cuernavaca lie at an elevation of nearly 
five thousand five hundred feet above the Pacific, and 
four thousand four hundred below the Cruz del Marques ; 
those of Yautepec and Cuautla Amilpas, to which we 
were now about to repair, at a general level of eight 



CUERNAVACA. 



191 



hundred feet lower. Great as this degree of elevation 
may appear, the peculiar conformation of the surface — 
its exposure to the south, while it is protected to the north 
and east by the great wall of the Sierra Madre — the 
extraordinary heat generated by the reflection of the 
sun's rays from those vast naked plains, all conspire to 
give them a climate more approaching to the tierras ca- 
lientes than that of the tierras templadas. Wherever 
mould of any description is found in a position which 
admits of either natural or artificial irrigation, there the 
fruits of the tropics are produced in the greatest perfec- 
tion, and with a strength of vegetation which none can 
imagine but those who have observed it. The barrancas 
of these plains form the hothouses of the capital above, 
and from them the market is daily supplied with abun- 
dance of the richest fruits. These are chiefly reared by 
the Indian population, whose little bamboo enclosures, 
overshadowed by the broad leaves of the banana and 
papaya, form many a beautiful picture in the vicinity of 
Cuernavaca. 

We quitted the town by a mule track, traversing a bar- 
ranca to the east ; and shaped our course towards the 
mountains bounding the plain in that direction. Our ar- 
riero and his mules had, according to his orders, left the 
town the preceding day. This was so far a disadvantage 
to us, as we were without a proper guide, and we soon 
experienced the inconveniences consequent upon this 
circumstance. 

The plains of Cuernavaca are separated from those of 
Yautepec, lying more to the southeast, by a range of 
secondary mountains, clothed with wood, and exhibiting 
in their grotesque and broken outline more of the charac- 
teristics of the Dolomite ridges of the Tyrol, than any 
other to which I can compare them : I believe that they 
are principally composed of breccia. The view opens 
full upon them immediately below Cuernavaca, while 
above them tower the long elevated ridge of the sierra, 
and at their termination the huge forms of the great vol- 
canoes rise into the sky. 

But I want words to describe the sublimity and beauty 



192 



THE MALPAIS. 



of the scenes which we now saw unfolded to us, hour 
after hour, for the following three days, while approach- 
ing and rounding the base of Popocatepetl. 

Though, according to the information we had re- 
ceived, the town of Yautepec was but six leagues distant, 
and our pace was this morning far from slow, six hours' 
hard riding scarcely sufficed to bring us within sight of it. 

This was partly owing, it is true, to the character of 
the soil, and certain detours which we unfortunately 
made, in bending too much to the eastward. After pass* 
ing a large Indian village, about six miles from Cuerna- 
vaca, we came upon a malpais, or a thick bedof hard black 
basaltic lava, covering a large extent of country towards 
the base of the mountains in advance. The faint mule 
track wandered to and fro over the iron surface in a 
most provoking manner ; now to the south, then to the 
north, till we were perfectly bewildered : the more so, 
as the whole was covered, in spite of its sterility, with 
trees and gigantic cacti of divers species. 

This obstacle overcome, we entered a valley in the 
hills — ascended a ravine, and, from the summit of the 
pass, looked down upon the broad plains of Yautepec and 
Cuautla, stretching far to the eastward along the foot of 
the great chain ; with numberless towns, villages, and 
haciendas, situated in the midst of tracts of fertile and 
highly cultivated land ; while broad bands of steril coun- 
try, at intervals, marked the path of the ancient lavas. 

In Yautepec, we found a town of considerable size, 
situated upon a stream of pure water, enjoying a very 
salubrious climate. It is imbosomed in groves of lemon 
and orange, and has claims to great picturesque beauty, 
both in general situation and details. It was a fair-day, 
and the principal plaza was crowded to suffocation with 
one of the most entertaining assemblages you can con- 
ceive — chaffering with might and main under the glow- 
ing beams of the noonday sun. 

By the arriero's faithfulness and Garcia's good man- 
agement — for though a knave, he was not a fool — we 
found our mules and their cargoes safe, and our quarters 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



193 



prepared in the house of the alcalde, who received and 
entertained us hospitably, during the hours of our stay. 
That functionary is obliged, by the laws of the land, to 
provide a lodging for strangers applying to him for accom- 
modation, in case that there is no regular inn. Excellent 
watermelons and ice were to be had in abundance. 

As time was not to be trifled \v4th, we were con- 
strained, however, after the greatest heat of the day was 
spent, to remount our horses, and pursue our route to the 
town of Cuautla Amilpas, at four leagues distance. The 
road, for the greater part, runs over the fertile portions 
of the plain, and passes many noble sugar haciendas, 
each with its dwelling house, refinery, crushing mill, and 
other offices, built in the most substantial style, and almost 
always adorned by a church, with dome and tower. They 
rank, in value, fertility, and good cultivation by free la- 
bour, among the first in New Spain. 

About sunset, when within a league of Cuautla Amil- 
pas, our line being a very straggling one, three of us, at- 
tended by Garcia, made a wrong turn, and went off 
across a huge unbroken level, towards the base of Popo- 
catepetl ; doubling our distance, and adding greatly to 
the fatigues of the day. We however agreed that the 
view we had hereby gained of the great volcano, rising, 
without any neighbour or rival, to the height of fourteen 
thousand feet perpendicular above the plateau on which 
we stood, with the red glow of the sunset upon his snowy 
summit, amply repaid us for the fatigue and vexation. 

It was dark before we entered the posada, in which we 
found thatM'Euen and the mules had with difficulty ef- 
fected a lodgment. Indeed, it was not till our arrival 
that a misunderstanding with the revenue officers was 
satisfactorily explained, and our party felt at liberty to 
prepare for rest and refreshment. How far that which 
followed merited that character you shall judge. 

Cuautla Amilpas, like the town of Yautepec, is situated 
upon one of the more considerable branches of either the 
Rio de las Balsas or the river Mescala, whose channels 
carry off to the Pacific all the waters flowing from the 
southern slopes of the table land of Mexico. 

R 



194 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



We were disappointed in the general appearance of 
the town, which may, nevertheless, be termed the Sara- 
gossa of New Spain, from the circumstances attending 
its pertinacious defence in the war of the revolution, 
when the famishing inhabitants, under the command of 
Morelos, withstood the concentrated forces of the Span- 
ish general, Calleja, for the space of several months.* 

Though upward of twenty years had since gone by, 
the hatred of the inhabitants to the Gachupin and the for- 
eigner seemed scarcely abated ; and we had not long 
been in the town before we discovered that we, in our 
general character of Europeans, were to be given to feel 
it ; and to make experience of the kind of danger which 
stills impends over the foreign traveller in the more un- 
frequented parts of the country. 

A wordy squabble in a civilized country is a matter of 
no great moment ; but here, where human life is consid- 
ered of but little value, and where the cuchillo or knife is 
instantly produced as the solver of all difficulties, the case 
is far otherwise. 

* It was after the death of Hidalgo in 1811, that Morelos took the 
lead, and early in February shut himself up in Cuautla Amilpas, with a 
hody of the insurgents. Calleja advanced from the capital, and made 
his first attack with great impetuosity on the 1 7th instant. Properly 
the town is indefensible, and had no other fortification than barricades 
and intrenchments thrown up in haste. However, the Spaniards were 
driven back by the fury with which they were confronted by the Mexi- 
cans, aided by the slings of the Indians from the roofs of the houses. The 
town was now regularly invested ; and on the 4th of March, the bom- 
bardment commenced — hut the defenders remained firm. An attempt 
to cut off the supply of water from the town failed ; while a guerilla 
warfare was carried on by other parties of the insurgents upon the ro*ds 
in the vicinity, and many of the reinforcements and detachments of the 
besiegers were cut off. But no succour could be brought to Morelos 
and his comrades, who soon began to suffer the extremity of famine, to 
such a degree, that at the end of April, a cat sold for six dollars, a lizard 
for two, and rats, and such vermin, for one. The object of Morelos was 
to protract the sieoe till the rainy season should commence, when it was 
to be supposed that sickness would force the besiegers to abandon the 
blockade. 

The extremity to which he was reduced obliged him ultimately to 
abandon the defence ; and this he did by departing secretly in the night 
of the 2d or 3d of May, without detection : and in two days he reached 
the town of Izucar, with the loss of but seventeen of his men.— See 
"Ward's Mexico* 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



195 



Like the generality of posadas, that in which we had 
hired our two chambers was disposed in the form of a 
hollow square, of which three sides were occupied by 
the lodging rooms and stables, and the fourth opened into 
a kind of paddock. The whole was surrounded by a 
wall ; and a large gate formed the only mode of commu- 
nication with the street, 

Don Juan, the master, was soon discovered to be a 
churl, who, for some reason or other, had determined not 
to give a civil answer to any question or any request we 
made of him. Indeed insult and abuse were not spared. 
Dona Dolores, his wife, and her female assistants, were 
also evidently disposed, as far as was in their power, to 
fall in with his humour ; and, far from performing the cus- 
tomary offices for the traveller, in the hope of good pay- 
ment, answered our request for food by jeering us, and 
pointing to the door. They would give us nothing, not 
even a glass of water. 

Our arriero and valets did not disguise their opinion 
that we had fallen into bad hands ; but the mules were 
unloaded — it was already dark — and altogether too late 
to seek another lodging. 

After an hour of patient endurance, two of us sallied 
forth on the scout ; and purchasing a pile of tortillas, and 
a basin of frijoles, with sundry other nondescript eatables, 
from the poor Indian women who occupied a corner of 
the market place, returned with them to our companions. 
The necessary information with reference to our route 
for the morrow, towards Zacualpam Amilpas, and Cho- 
lula, was with difficulty picked up in the shops which 
we entered to make trifling purchases. 

Shortly after our return to our inhospitable quarters, 
Don Juan, who seemed to be really possessed by a dia- 
bolical spirit, and unable either to rest or to leave others 
in repose, hit upon a method to provoke us to take a 
more active part than hitherto in the quarrels which had 
been incessant between his family and our servants, from 
the hour of our arrival. At eight o'clock he locked the 
gate of the posada, and refused the liberty of exit to any 
of the party, stating that such was the order of the 



196 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



alcalde. To the alcalde, then, we insisted upon going, 
to ascertain if such an order existed, and if so, to procure 
a dispensation ; as, unless our preparations of departure 
were completed now, we should be liable to detention 
on the morrow, when we ought to be travelling. This 
could not be refused, the door was opened, and three of 
us sallied forth, under the threat that we should sleep in 
the streets, for that none of us should re-enter. Accord- 
ingly the door was slammed at our backs, and locked, 
amid a volley of abuse and ribaldry from the house- 
hold. 

I must say, that we felt justly irritated ; as, far from 
provoking this treatment, we had borne the previous 
churlishness with equanimity, both of temper and man- 
ner ; and had given good words in exchange for bad. 

We soon found the house of the alcalde. After much 
knocking, the door was opened, and we demanded to 
see his honour. After five minutes' delay, we were 
cautiously admitted into a small apartment. Five min- 
utes again elapsed ; when the magistrate, a sleepy, 
heavily built, good-natured man, made his appearance, 
half dressed, having already been in bed. We told our 
case, and satisfied him as to our being honest and re- 
sponsible personages. He immediately denied that he 
had given the order complained of ; but said that the 
number of banditti in the country had given rise to one, 
according to which, no armed parties should be let into 
the town after nine o'clock, without an order from him, 
but which, of course, was in nowise applicable to us. 
He offered to send a verbal message to Don Juan, our 
ungracious host, to desire that he would put no impedi- 
ments in our way, but let us have free ingress and egress 
night and day : but this would not serve our purpose ; 
and, in fine, after much talk, we persuaded him to give 
us a written document to the same purport. He was 
extremely civil, and at parting complained grievously of 
the responsibilities and toils of his post. 

Thus furnished, we returned to the posada. The 
door was of course fast ; and upon knocking, we were 
challenged by Don Juan : " Who we were ?" " What 
we were making a noise at the door for ?" " Did we not 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



197 



know the order f" and so forth, mingled with threats to 
call the town guard, and give us lodgings in the town 
prison. To all this we could only reply by a fresh sum- 
mons, enforced by a general thump of our sabre hilts at 
the gate, and a chorus of " Will your grace open the 
door ? — an order from the alcalde H There was really 
something extremely dramatic in the w 7 hole scene. 
Open the door he would not, pretending to believe that 
we were a party of thieves freshly arrived, instead of 
honest old acquaintances. At length he told us to thrust 
the letter under the planks, which we did. It took him 
a long time to spell, which, by-the-by, I do not wonder at, 
as his honour, the sleepy alcalde, had contrived to write 
it in a most illegible hand. Every now and then Don 
Juan called to us, t£ Don't be in a hurry ! a little patience, 
a little patience, signores /" which of course did not add 
to our store. At length the door opened, and one by 
one in we marched ; when, foaming with passion, he in- 
stantly relocked it, and swore stoutly that not a soul 
should leave the posada again that night. 

A quarrel was now unavoidable, and it soon arose to 
a storm. Two or three drunken travellers joined in it, 
most inopportunely ; and threats of violence against us, 
as Europeans, began to be heard. Dona Dolores rushed 
into the fray, confronting Garcia, who was unfortunately 
pot valiant, with the most opprobrious language and 
gestures. Her apparition threw oil upon the fire, and 
Don Juan, without more ado, ran into the house, and 
came back armed with a long cut and thrust sword called 
a machete, while we, as a matter of necessity — for I may 
say that all along we acted on the defensive — had now 
to produce our pistols. The gate was thrown open by 
the women ; the town guards and some of the neighbours 
rushed in, and without inquiry into the merits of the case, 
or the origin of the hubbub, immediately ranged them- 
selves on the side of our opponents, with a violence which 
showed us we had no justice to hope from their inter- 
vention. Sabres were drawn, and pistols were cocked, 
and there was a moment when a bloody fray seemed 
inevitable. 

r2 



198 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



The probable consequences flashed upon my mind, 
and doubtless upon those of my companions. Having 
done what we could to avoid the quarrel, we were now, 
as men will be when urged to desperation, one and all, 
fully determined to sell our lives dear ; for — though I 
cannot doubt, even outnumbered as we were, that the 
superiority of our weapons would have enabled us to 
clear the courtyard of our adversaries in the first in- 
stance — we could not fail to have been ultimately over- 
powered and massacred, such was the spirit of detesta- 
tion to our persons which now blazed forth without 
disguise, in the menaces of our opponents. As to law 
and justice, name them not ! I have since shuddered to 
think how many lives hung upon the lifting of a single 
arm, and the striking of a single blow ; and we all owned, 
the following morning, when riding out of the town, that 
to God's providence alone we could ascribe the fact that 
w e were enabled to do so in peace and safety. 

The flight of Dona Dolores, which followed the entry 
of the guard, and the preparations for fight, was by no 
means a disadvantage, for she was the main cause of the 
affray having taken this serious aspect ; and as neither 
party seemed inclined to strike the first blow, a little 
time was gained for reflection, which terminated with 
the gradual retirement of our principal foes ; their exam- 
ple was followed by the guard, after a rude denial of 
our right to bear arms, and an attempt to compel their 
being given up, which I need not say was unsuccessful. 
As to the order of the poor old alcalde, they laughed it 
to scorn ! 

When the intruders had retired, the gates were again 
shut, and each party slunk to their quarters. We had 
for some time abundant proofs that the quarrel was nei- 
ther forgotten nor forgiven ; and though we slept as 
usual, we may be excused for having made arrangements 
for instant self-defence, should it have been necessary ; 
and we neither undressed nor disarmed. To have shut 
the door, and thus to have made a citadel of our quarter, 
would, as there w r as no window, have been to turn it into 
" a black hole." 



ZACUALPAM AMILPAS. 



199 



Our preparations for an early start were seconded 
with such good will by our people, that soon after day- 
break the whole party was ready to march. Neither 
Don Juan nor Dona Dolores made their appearance ; 
but using a valet as a cat's paw, they received their pay- 
ment, and graciously wishing us " Bueno Viaggio P 
opened the gate for our welcome departure. 

Such is the souvenir which we have brought away 
from our visit to the patriotic Cuautla Amilpas. 

Our next halting place was the town of Zacualpam 
Amilpas, which we reached after seven hours' ride to 
the eastward, over a very rough line of open country, 
sweeping up towards the base of Popocatepetl, which 
we were gradually approaching and rounding. 

Zacualpam Amilpas vies with Cuernacava and Yau- 
tepec, in beauty of situation, and in the luxuriance of the 
cultivation in the immediate vicinity. The plain in 
which it lies has a general level of about five thousand 
feet above the sea. Immense perpendicular masses of 
trachite rise from its bosom, and form isolated hills of 
very considerable elevation. The Great Volcano bore 
now almost due north of us, at the distance of perhaps 
ten leagues. 

Here we had previously the intention of spending a 
few days with two of the gentlemen of the diplomatic 
corps from Mexico, who had preceded us hither, with 
the ultimate intention of attempting the ascent of Popo- 
catepetl ; but under the present uncertainty when the 
packet would sail, we had no alternative but to proceed 
without delay— and therefore, in the course of the eve- 
ning, after parting from Mr. E., who had proved himself a 
useful and agreeable companion, and a good man and 
true, in the hour of peril, we hired a guide to direct us 
on our road to Cholula, and resumed our pilgrimage. 
Four leagues of very rugged upland road, over hill and 
barrancas, brought us after dusk to the Indian village of 
San Mateo, situated among the mountains directly under 
Popocatepetl. 

The whole ride, that immense cone, rising in unclouded 
majesty directly over against us, had been the principal 



200 



BASE OF POPOCATEPETL. 



object of our attention. It appeared based upon a con- 
fused chaos of hills and mountains, composed in a great 
measure of volcanic substances, which had either been 
ejected from the principal crater, when in violent erup- 
tion, or which had found a vent on its flank, or at its 
feet. 

On this side, the limit of the snow was considerably 
higher than on the other, as seen from Mexico. Heavy 
forests of pine clothed the lower division, and a strag- 
gling vegetation might be detected, perhaps to the height 
of thirteen thousand feet or upward. Above that, a 
zone of dark barrancas and rocks, intermixed with slopes 
of black volcanic sand, rises far towards the region of 
perpetual snow. A high and remarkable rock called 
the Pico del Frayle, or the Monk, breaks the general 
outline of the cone upon the southwestern slope. The 
great fatigue attendant upon the ascent of the superior 
part of the volcano, where the adventurer has not only 
to struggle with the faithless nature of the footing, but 
with the serious inconveniences attendant upon the ex- 
treme rarity of the atmosphere, may be conceived ; and 
to these, the failure of many attempts made by Euro- 
peans of late years, to reach the crater, has to be as- 
cribed. I have seen those w ho boast of their success, 
but unfortunately, have not met with one who was suf- 
ficiently alive on his gaining the summit to enable him 
to convey to others the slighest idea of what he had be- 
held. 

Since the earlier years of this century, the signs of 
combustion in this volcano have been so slight, as to be 
scarcely noticed. It was, however, said at Zacualpam 
Amilpas, that smoke had been seen to rise from it occa- 
sionally during the past month. 

In spite of the most careful observation bestowed upon 
every part of the snowy summit this evening, and during 
the morning of the 24th, wiien we continued to round 
the base, I could not with any certainty detect anything 
of the kind. The utmost that I could possibly assert, 
was, that I observed that the outline of certain rocks 
lining a deep crevice, a little below the summit, was 
uniformly extremely faint, indistinct, and vaporous, 



BASE OF POPOCATEPETL. 



201 



while every other part of the outline was perfectly clear 
and well defined. 

I have mentioned elsewhere, that Diego Ordaz, one 
of the officers of Cortez, made an attempt to reach the 
crater, on their first advance to the capital. He was, 
however, forced to leave his hardy project unachieved, 
the mountain being in a state of actual combustion, He 
must have been a bold adventurer, for in those days, a 
volcano in eruption was not considered a thing to play 
with, by crowds of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies, 
as in the present age. 

I have elsewhere given the height of Popocatepetl, 
as determined by Humboldt and Bonpland, at 17,884 
feet* 

At San Mateo, we were courteously received and 
entertained by the simple Indian inhabitants, under the 
authority of their alcalde, an old man, speaking no 
language but that of his race. We were lodged in a 

* It may interest the reader to know that four days after our visit the 
ascent to the volcano was effected by the gentlemen above named. 

On the morning of the 27th of April, Baron Gros, M. de Gerolt, and 
Mr Egerton, set out from Zacualpam Amilpas, and reached Ozumba 
on the afternoon of that day. Here they procured guides from the 
village of Alautia, and commenced the ascent the following morning, 
reaching the Vaqueria, a chalet which is the highest point inhabited, at 
one p.m. At three p.m., after passing through a zone of noble oaks, 
firs, and larch, they attained the limit of vegetation. Here, at about one 
third of the ascent, commence tracts of deep purple sand, strewed with 
blocks of porphyry. They spent the night just within the shelter of the 
dwarf forest, Fahrenheit's thermometer standing at fifty degrees. 

On the 29th, at three a.m., they resumed the climb in the moonlight, 
with three guides and Mr. E's servant, proceeding in a zigzag up the 
sand. At nine they reached the Pico del Frayle, a pile of red rocks, of 
about a hundred feet in perpendicular elevation. Here the Indian 
guides abandoned the enterprise. Thus far the way had been fatiguing, 
but not dangerous. After one hour's rest they proceeded, finding the 
ascent much more difficult, till they reached the snow line. At this 
time all suffered severely from the rarity of the air. M. de G. finally 
reached the highest point at half past two, and his companions scon fol- 
lowed. They describe the crater to form an abyss of a circular form, and 
three miles in circumference, with perhaps a depth of a thousand feet. 
There is a break towards the east. The side walls are perpendicular. 
Vapours rise from several orifices, but rarely reach the edge of the 
crater. Here the adventurers staid one hour, and then, at five p.m., 
descending, reached their halting place in the wood. The following 
day, the 30th of April, they returned to the foot of the mountain. They 
state distinctly that Iztaccihuatl exhibits no signs of a crater* 



202 



ATLISCO. 



shed, which served at once for chapel and courthouse, 
and were extremely amused by a visit of ceremony 
which the chief magistrate paid us in the course of the 
evening, bearing a silver stick as badge of office, and 
attended by a posse of half-naked subalterns. After 
five minutes spent in nodding and smoking with his 
guests like the best frbnds in the world, he departed 
and left us to our repose ; with the bright moonlight 
glistening upon the snow of the volcano, and the clari- 
net and banjo of the Indians sounding in our ears. 
But what sight or sounds can keep the weary traveller 
from his rest ? 

The following morning we continued our rapid jour- 
ney to the east and northeast, over an open country, 
to Atlisco, a large town situated at the foot of an acute 
conical hill of considerable elevation, which rises from 
the level bosom of the surrounding country. Besides 
the chapel on its summit, Atlisco boasts no fewer than 
seven or eight churches. Here we halted only two 
hours ; and then trotted onward, hoping to reach Cho- 
lula, five leagues distant, at an early hour. The coun- 
try over which we passed was in very bad repute for 
the robberies upon it — but here, as elsewhere, we ex- 
perienced no interruption, though the numerous crosses 
by the roadside proved the truth of the report. 

Long before sunset, we came in sight of the plains of 
Cholula, and of La Puebla de los Angeles. Their surface 
is broken by many mounds, natural and artificial ; and 
among these, the celebrated Teocalli of Cholula, with 
the white church upon its platform, soon became dis- 
tinguished, and gave a spur to our movements. But 
our animals were jaded with the heat and stony roads ; 
and the last sunbeams were shining on the facade of 
the Church of Neustra Senora de los Remedios above 
us, as we entered the town. 

Night speedily followed ; and as my paper is full, I 
will begin another letter with the history of another 
day, 



{ 



CHOLULA. 



203 



LETTER IX. 

The ancient city of Cholula lies on a broad plain, 
extending to the base of the chains in advance of the 
Great Nevadas, and at an elevation of six thousand five 
hundred feet above the sea. 

Situated some miles to the south of the great road 
between the large Spanish-built city of Puebla de los 
Angeles and the capital, it is comparatively seldom 
visited. To the north, beyond the barren but beauti- 
fully formed Sierra Malinche, lies the territory of 
Tlascala, whose republican inhabitants, spurred on by 
their hatred to the Mexican yoke, acted such an impor- 
tant part in the history of the conquest, as the allies of 
Cortez. 

Cholula was the sacred city of the Mexican empire, 
and at the time of the Spanish invasion numbered a 
population within its precincts, to which the few thou- 
sands who now occupy a small portion of its ancient 
site are but a fraction. If we are rightly informed, its 
decay is far from having reached its term, and this may 
be easily accounted for by the vicinity of the city of 
Puebla, which has sprung up within a few leagues to 
the eastward. The principal square is very spacious, 
and there are many large churches ; but we found little 
in the city worthy of withholding our attention, during 
the brief hours of our halt from the main object of our 
visit, which it is hardly necessary to tell you was the 
celebrated pyramid. 

This vast mound, in spite of the waste of centuries, 
which has destroyed the regularity of its form, rounded 
and broken down its angles, confounded its terraces, and 
given it the air of a shapeless mass of earth, is still a 
marvel and a wonder in the land, and will probably re- 
main so to the end of time* 



204 



CHOLULA. 



It stands to the east of the present city, upon a base 
of one thousand four hundred and twenty-five feet square ; 
and originally consisted of four stages, terminating in a 
platform, one hundred and seventy-seven feet above the 
plain. 

It is now very difficult to trace the several proportions 
among the slopes and brushw T ood, and the heaps of 
crumbling brickwork with which its acclivity is covered. 

A s soon as the sun was up we passed through the out- 
skirts of the city, and round the foot of several elevated 
mounds, evidently artificial in their origin, towards the 
base of the teocalli. A little in advance are two enor- 
mous masses of earth, displaying in their perpendicular 
sides the regular courses of unburnt brick and clay, of 
which they, as well as the principal pyramid, are wholly 
constructed. A sloping road of modern formation leads 
over the three lower divisions of the great pyramid to the 
level of the third terrace, when you are conducted by a 
flight of stone steps to the principal platform, upon which 
the church with two towers and a dome has replaced the 
ancient erection raised here by the Aztecs or their pre- 
decessors, to the worship of their principal divinity, Quet- 
zalcoatl. 

The area of the platform, according to a former trav- 
eller, measures three thousand four hundred square yards. 
Its sides are well faced with stone, and thus preserved ; 
yet the waste of the soil has been so considerable on the 
eastern side, that the building is there wholly supported 
upon arches. 

Two large evergreen cypresses and a massive cross 
stand before the principal entrance of the church. Many 
groups of trees, principally " schinus" are scattered over 
the surface of the pyramid, and the view from the plat- 
form, though not to be compared with those in the vicin- 
ity of the capital for beauty, is of vast extent and great 
interest, and includes the three great Nevadas of Mex- 
ico — Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, and Orizava, with their 
advanced chains. 

How far the vulgar tradition that the great pyramid of 
Cholula is hollow may be borne out by the fact, it is 



CHOLULA. 



205 



impossible to say. One chamber was discovered some 
ye.irs a^o in the lower story, in consequence of the road 
to Puebla having been cut through it ; and two human 
skeletons, with a number of idols in basalt, and some 
painted vases, were brought to light. This chamber, 
which was faced with stone and supported with cypress 
beams, proved to have no connection with the exterior ; 
and the main mass of the teocalli has, as yet, remained 
untouched. In the same manner as 1 have described at 
San Juan Teotihuacan, the great pyramid of Cholula was 
surrounded by many inferior erections of the same char- 
acter, though I am not aware what was their precise ar- 
rangements. The ruins of many are seen from the sum- 
mit ; and doubtless divers of those isolated mounds which 
break the uniformity of the great level in the vicinity for 
many miles round have a similar origin. 

The pyramid of Cholula, with those of San Juan Teo- 
tihuacan and Papantla, were found by the Aztecs in Ana- 
huac, upon their first arrival in that country. Indeed 
the city of Cholula, the " holy city," was still peopled by 
such of the Toltec race as had maintained their po- 
sition on the Mexican table land after the dispersion of 
their tribe, as related in a former letter ; and its pyramid 
is supposed to be more ancient than any other in New 
Spain. 

After the model of these, the Aztecs built their great 
temples in their capital and elsewhere. 

I have elsewhere hinted at the probable identity be- 
tween Quetzalcoatl, who was here worshipped as the 
"god of the air," with the patriarch Noah ; and also the 
supposition that the original purpose with which this pyra- 
midal structure was raised, was one and the same with 
that which is known to have given rise to those of Asia, 
To Quetzalcoatl, all the ancient tribes of Anahuac at- 
tributed their knowledge of melting metals — their rites 
and ceremonies of religion — and their arrangement of 
time. 

But He, who was at once king, priest, and lawgiver — 
4< born of a virgin" — the " precious stone of suffering and 

s 



20(\ 



CHOLULA. 



sacrifice" — whose disappearance is recorded, and return 
to earth so clearly expected by the Mexicans, has well 
been termed the " most mysterious and inexplicable per- 
sonage in the Mexican mythology ;" and the mind be- 
comes perfectly bewildered in attempting to glean proba- 
bilities from the scattered traditions concerning his his* 
tory, or to reconcile his various attributes. 

La Puebla, to which we repaired in the course of the 
morning, has been called the City of Angels, from the 
legend which records the assistance given by those beings 
in the construction of the cathedral. It may with much 
more reason be termed the" City of Bigots," for in no part 
of Mexico is hatred against those of another faith so un- 
disguised, as the stones hurled against many a European 
traveller testify. And, if an anecdote which was related 
me in the capital was true, it would seem that even the 
irresponsible hide of a brute beast might not shield it 
from lapidation, if the owner was known to have been 
bred and nurtured without the pale of the church. 

Some time since two English dray horses were pro- 
cured by a European resident in Mexico, and unshipped 
at Vera Cruz ; colossal, big-boned, muscular animals, 
compared with which the Mexican breed were but shel- 
ties. They may have found their long voyage disagree- 
able, but they were doomed to find their land journey 
to the capital yet more so. Wherever they passed, 
there was a perfect ferment among the populace. The 
heretical horses ! — there was no possibility of smuggling 
them through the country, or of concealing their unfortu- 
nate lineage. They were everywhere regarded with 
detestation. They and their grooms were loaded with 
maledictions at Vera Cruz— pelted at Jalapa — execrated 
and pelted at Perote— execrated, pelted, and stoned, with 
might and main, at La Puebla de los Angeles — and 
hardly escaped with their lives, to be repelted and re- 
stoned on their arrival at their journey's end. There, 
however, they arrived ; but for any use they were to the 
possessor, they might as well have been peaceably em- 
ployed in starting casks in London among their fellow 
heretics, biped and quadruped ; for they had to be con- 



LA PUEBLA. 



207 



fined to their stable morning, noon, and night — such was 
the tumult excited by their appearance and character. 
At length the possessor was fairly driven to bow to popu- 
lar opinion. 

There is a certain church in Mexico, of which I have 
omitted to note down the patron saint, but I know that 
you leave it a little to the left hand as you approach the 
garita on the road to San Augustin. To this church, 
from time immemorial, it has been the custom of the 
country, for the inhabitants of the city and adjoining val- 
ley to bring their domestic animals for baptism by the 
hands of the priest ; the popular belief being, that till 
this is done, they do not belong to the Catholic church, 
and cannot possibly prosper. 

And here, at the proper time, in company with many 
animals of less pretension, came the two English dray 
horses. They were regularly sprinkled, the fee was paid 
to the cura, and from that time, being considered as 
Christianos, they were allowed to hold up their heads 
and perform their labours without molestation ! 

Our stay at La Puebla was, as you may suppose, very 
hurried, as we here found the report that the packet 
really sailed on the first instant fully confirmed. My 
sketch, therefore, like my survey, must be hasty and 
brief. The city is large, and regularly and handsomely 
built, with a population estimated at 60,000 souls; and 
the traveller sees much to remind him of the capital. It 
was founded three centuries ago, by the Spaniards. A 
hill clothed with wood rises to the north ; and the plain 
in its immediate vicinity is well cultivated, and produces 
a vast quantity of wheat and maize. In adornment and 
arrangement the houses resemble those of Mexico in 
every particular. Sixty-nine churches, many of them 
richly endowed, many monasteries, nunneries, and col- 
leges, prove the sanctity of the city and the piety of the 
inhabitants. 

The cathedral is the most splendid and richest struc- 
ture in New Spain, superior to that of the capital in the 
beauty of its architecture and for the mass of riches col- 
lected within its walls. The high altar, throughout its 



208 



LA PUEBLA. 



gorgeous details, is of almost unrivalled magnificence. 
Our short stay was sufficient to show us that the mass 
of the population comprised a considerable number of 
leperos. 

The city was in a disturbed state ; and it was ru- 
moured that the general feeling was hostile to the pres- 
ent government, and only awaiting an occasion for a 
demonstration in favour of the clergy now in disgrace. 
The bishop, the most energetic and talented man in the 
country, being personally obnoxious to the members of 
the present cabinet, which had given orders for his 
arrest, was at this time in concealment somewhere in 
the city ; it was whispered in one of the convents. 

As it was our intention to pursue our journey the 
following morning towards Jalapa, we lost no time in 
taking the necessary steps. A coach was hired with its 
train of mules, and an escort of five dragoons obtained 
for it, by an application to the commandant. As to 
M'Euen and myself, we stoutly determined to con- 
tinue our route as hitherto, on horseback, and to trust to 
our savage appearance, or rather to the keeping of 
Providence, for escape from the dangers of the road to 
the coast. 

At daybreak, April 26th, we were en route on the 
beaten track, and a barren one it was, after quitting the 
Haciendas de Trigo, or corn estates, in the vicinity of 
La Puebla, till we reached the swelling hills covered by 
a pine forest, known by the name of El Pinal. This is 
one of the most accredited stripping places on the road. 

Here, hardly a month earlier, the diligence from Vera 
Cruz to the capital was robbed, with the most ludicrous 
regularity, for weeks together. When stopped, the pas- 
sengers — who generally contrived to have nothing on 
their persons that was worth fighting about, and no 
arms to fight with — were told to alight, and to lie down 
in a row on their stomachs on the sand, into which their 
noses were unceremoniously thrust, with threats of in- 
stant death if they stirred. Their persons and the coach 
were then thoroughly rifled ; and they were left, with 
the warning, that if any moved or looked up for the 



THE PINAL. 



209 



space of half an hour, the carbine or the cucliillo should 
settle matters. After some patience and cautious peep- 
ing, they would gather themselves up, shake their ears, 
clamber into the diligence, and proceed thankfully on 
their journey. But as to ourselves, we have no adven- 
tures to relate. 

During the whole of our morning's ride, the beautiful 
mountain, La Malinche, lay on our left hand. It is the 
highest summit between the chain of Orizava and that 
of the Mexican Nevadas. I have, upon what authority 
I cannot now recollect, elsewhere termed it the volcano 
of Tlascala, but though its form would favour the con- 
clusion, I am not prepared to prove that it is such. We 
made our noonday halt at a village a little beyond the 
Pinal, after a ride of ten leagues, many of which lay 
through deep sand. 

And here I took the liberty of prying a little into the 
character of our doughty escort. It consisted of four 
privates and a corporal ; and five more inoffensive war- 
riors never mounted on horseback. Their horses were 
none of the best, but quite good enough for the purpose. 
The riders were dressed in a species of uniform, consist- 
ing of red coats and a black round hat, with a narrow 
strip of white linen tied round it. Their nether gar- 
ments were not conformable ; and it was evident their 
pay and discipline did not extend so far down. u But it 
is not the dress, after all, that makes the soldier," you 
may say : true, there are the arms and the valour ! 
As to the arms, all were furnished with a long lance, 
with a little green and red penoncelle fluttering at the 
end, which they carried in proper military fashion — a 
dangerous weapon if used with determination and dis- 
cretion. Moreover, all were furnished with carbines 
and cartridge boxes, and the leader was armed with a 
sabre with a leather sheath. This was not so much 
amiss, and would do very well at a distance : but during 
the two hours' halt at the village aforesaid, I took it into 
my head, while the owners were enjoying their siesta 
under the shade of the gateway, just to stride in among 
them, and take a nearer inspection of the weapons, and 

s2 



210 



NOPALTJCA. 



I furnish you with the following note made at the mo- 
ment of my scrutiny :— 

"Carbine I. Much worse for wear — no flint and a 
broken trigger — cannot imagine how it is to be dis- 
charged. 

Carbine II. Seen much service, no flint, no ramrod. 
(i Carbine III. Lock broken short off, and otherwise 
damaged. 

44 Carbine IV. Utterly devoid of all appearance of lock. 

"Carbine V. Furnished with all the outward signs ex- 
cept ramrod; but from its appearance, doubt very 
much its efficiency, especially as I have no proof that 
there is a single cartridge, either in the weapons or 
in the cartridge boxes." 

So much for the arming of our escort. Now as to their 

valour. 

For what purpose were they hired — at the cost of 
eighteen dollars, to ride by the side of the coach, from 
La Pueblo to Perote ? To scare away thieves and rob- 
bers. But if the thieves would not be frightened — 
to fight ? No ! such an idea never came into their 
heads. To tight ! — he, he — ha, ha — ho, ho I — to get, 
perhaps, a shot from a real carbine, or a slash across the 
nose — or at least to be lassoed, half strangled, dragged 
from horseback, and ground to powder, by being hur- 
ried along the road for a few hundred yards — and all that 
for only eighteen dollars ! and for the pleasure of their 
valours, the three heretic dons ? No, the idea is ridicu- 
lous ! Does it not appear almost such to you ? Se- 
riously speaking, I believe an escort in Mexico is never 
expected to fight, not only because I never heard of a 
well-accredited case of their dom'x so, but from the pe- 
culiar style and character of the arms wherewith they 
are furnished. This strange circumstance apart, I 
must give our dragoons a good character. They gave 
us no trouble, always stuck to the carriage, spoke not 
an unnecessary word, and were dismissed at Perote, 
where all danger from banditti was supposed to be at 
an end. 

To resume the notice of our journey. Six leagues 



OJO DE AGUA. 



211 



of road over the wide undulating surface of the sandy- 
plains brought us towards evening at our halting place, 
Ojo de Agua ; a posada built at a spot where a clear 
and abundant stream issues forth from the foot of a 
mass of volcanic matter, and forms a green oasis in the 
middle of the desert. Till the afternoon of this day, 
we had been unable to catch a glimpse of the great 
cone of Orizava, towards the northern extremity of 
whose chain we were gradually approaching. The 
weather had been dull and hazy ever since we reached 
Cholula, whence we should otherwise have been able 
to descry it. Now, as we trotted slowly over the plains, 
our eyes were busily engaged in searching among the 
shifting layers of light cloud which rose above the dis- 
tant horizon, for some indication of his presence. One 
bright spot after another was the production of much 
speculation and ultimate disappointment; at length, 
about two hours before we reached our resting place, 
we became unanimous in believing that a certain in- 
distinct whitish mass, high up in the smoky atmosphere, 
formless and vague as it was, could be no other than 
the object of which we were in search ; and true 
enough, as th& sun went down behind us, and the air 
cleared, we saw it become brighter and brighter ; and, 
in fine, shaking aside its veil, the colossal cone stood 
before us in majesty, at the limit of the table land over 
which it soared to the perpendicular height of ten 
thousand feet. 

As we proceeded over the almost interminable plains 
the following day to Perote, it stood revealed in all its 
sublimity, as well as the whole of the chain with which 
it is connected. This range is terminated to the north 
by the extinct volcano called the Coffre de Perote. A 
sudden change in the air about noon, which we were 
all sensible of, was immediately recognised as indi- 
cating a norte on the coast. At Perote we arrived to- 
wards evening, after halting for two hours in the vi- 
cinity of an isolated volcanic mass, called the Cerro de 
Pizarro. 

Perote is a small decayed town, with a fort, or rather 
a depot, iu the vicinity, situated at the height of 7691 



212 



PEROTE. 



feet above the gulf, near the eastern limit of the table 
land. An early* march of a few hours the following 
morning brought us to the crest of the Pass, to the 
north of the Coffre de Perote, and to the commence- 
ment of the great descent to the coast. 

Our journey thus far from Perote had been rather 
barren of interest, but upon gaining the elevated alpine 
village of Las Vigas, it was far otherwise. The sandy 
route now gave place to a steep Calzada, ,over which 
the unwieldy coach came lumbering down, with many 
a jog and many a jolt, to the great discomfort of the 
occupant, and the apparent peril of the train of mules. 
The upper part of the road crosses the flanks of the 
Coffre de Perote, a mountain so called, from a square, 
chest-shaped eminence which crowns its long ridge, 
and contains the crater of a volcano, which, however 
long dormant, must once have been the vent of tremen- 
dous eruptions, judging by the signs scattered over the 
neighbouring country. Las Vigas lies at the height of 
7820 feet above the £ulf, and consequently within the 
limit of the tierras frias. The forests in the vicinity 
are chiefly pine. At this elevation we were enveloped 
in cold driving mist, worthy of the Alps ; and though 
its partial clearance before we descended to Jalapa, 
three thousand five hundred feet lower, gave us many 
a glimpse of the magnificent scenery around, yet it 
must be conceded, that we lost much by not having a 
brighter and less clouded view. Some distance below 
Las Vigas, we entered upon a pedrigal covered with 
scanty vegetation ; and we continued for many miles 
to descend over slopes covered to a great depth by vol- 
canic deposits ; here thick beds of black cinders and 
scoria, coating the rock with a thick stratum, and lying 
just as they had rained from the heavens ; there floods 
of black lava, hard as adamant, and yet bearing upon 
their unequal surface abundant signs of the liquid 
state in which they had poured down from the moun- 
tains above. As usual, the surface of the lava was 
never smooth, even in places where it had met with 
the least obstruction, but displayed an infinity of sharp 
wrinkles overlapping each other, or> rather, I should 



DESCENT TO JALAPA. 



213 



say, shooting from under the other. In parts of the 
country where rocks, or inequalities of the original 
surface, had interposed impediments to the gentle flow 
of the volcanic matter, the scene of confusion was truly 
terrific. Here, the surface would be heaped with 
huge blocks of solid rock, hundreds of tons in weight, 
masses which had evidently once floated like corks 
upon the irresistible flood ; and their black rifts and 
yawning caverns would mark the struggles of the fluid, 
as it pitched down some mountain steep to a lower 
level. 

We halted for breakfast at a hamlet situated in the very 
centre of this volcanic matter, and afterward resumed 
the sharp descent. Below the lavas, the forests became 
more luxuriant, teeming with curious trees and shrubs; 
and the views far more open. Judging from what we 
saw, they must be of a most splendid description, and 
that epithet may be worthily bestowed upon the situation 
of the city of Jalapa, where we arrived at two o'clock in 
the afternoon, having left Perote at four a.m. The 
change from the sterility of the table land above to the 
luxuriant and teeming vegetation of this lovely region, 
was more striking than the contrast between the char- 
acteristic features of the great level plains with their bar- 
ren volcanic cones, to the varied and beautiful wooded 
hills, vales, and mountains, which characterize this most 
lovely region of New Spain. 

You and others have asked me, what comparison can 
be drawn between the Alps of Europe and the Cordil- 
lera? I was going to say none, but the traveller must 
learn not to be rash. The lines of just comparison are 
very faint. The highest summits are covered with snow; 
the green swelling mountain and pastures of the middle 
region have a general resemblance with the lower Alps 
of Switzerland, in their outlines and colouring, though 
hardly in their climate ; and there is something in the 
general features of the upland vales of the Cordillera, 
where they break down towards the coast, which puts 
you in mind of the scenery of those magnificent valleys, 
where the icy streams of the great southern chain of the 
Alps precipitate themselves towards the sunny plains of 



214 



THE ALPS AND THE CORDILLERA. 



Italy, and Garry far down into the clime of the vine and 
chestnut, the debris of the inhospitable regions of bare 
rock and snow. 

But as to those details, which you would take as chiefly 
characteristic of either chain, no similarity whatever can 
be established. 

In the limestone, slate, and granitic ranges of the Alps, 
beauty of outline is far from being confined to any single 
ridge. It is an attribute of the secondary, as well as the 
most elevated ; of the parallel chains, as well as of the 
diverging mountains, which, like ribs, start out from the 
great back bone of the continent, and sink gradually to 
the level of the plains on either hand. Piled, range be- 
hind range, with deep vales between — with numerous 
lakes, and clothed up to the very limit of eternal snow, 
with green or forested slopes — they are eminently pic- 
turesque ; and the gentle luxuriance of the lower valleys 
contrasts felicitously with the precipitous rocks and masses 
of snow which occupy the higher regions. The scale 
and the structure of the Alps permit the eye to command, 
in almost every situation, the whole of their varied detail. 
The enormous extent of the glaciers on the upper plains 
and acclivities, and the peculiar manner in which they 
descend towards the valleys, are mainly characteristic of 
these mountains. 

Now as to general outline, both from what I have seen 
and have heard with regard to other parts of the Andes, 
that of the great porphyritic chains of the Cordillera can 
hardly be said to be generally picturesque. It is scarcely 
broken enough ; its details are too vast. One enormous 
wall of mountains rises behind another, each buttressing 
a broad step of table land, but in general the interval be- 
tween them is far too great for the eye to command 
more than one at a time. Here and there, from the 
general level of the undulating mountain ridge, rises a 
tremendous cone, with a breadth of base, and an even 
smoothness of outline, which, at the same time that they 
proclaim its origin, and add to its sublimity, take from its 
picturesque beauty. The summit bears its mantle of 
snow 5 but compared with the mass, it is but a cap — not 



JALAPA. 



215 



a flowing mantle, with its silver and purple folds and its 
fringe of ice. 

There are again, for the reason stated, few positions 
in which your eye will command, at the same time, the 
rich and gorgeous vegetation of the lower slopes of the 
Mexican Cordillera, and the sublimity of the superior 
ranges. The vast sheets of the barren table land are in- 
terposed, the tierras templadas separate the calientes 
from the frias. Each has its peculiar characteristics, 
but they can seldom, if ever, be comprised in one and 
the same picture. 

You look in vain among all the exuberant forest growth 
and the giant flora of Mexico, for the sweet cheering 
freshness of Alpine vegetation ; that luxuriance without 
rankness, which clothes the lower valleys. 

From this you will see, that where the two chains 
might be supposed to have points of resemblance, they 
have little or none. 

Besides that, in the style of its vegetation, both in the 
torrid and temperate regions, the plains and their pe- 
culiar characteristics, the prodigious barrancas, the whole 
series of volcanic phenomena, which prevade the country, 
from the sands of the coast to the craters of the highest 
volcanoes, as well as in colouring, the more prominent 
features of Mexico are so marked and so utterly dif- 
ferent, that they extinguish the idea of comparison. 

Suppose us now at Jalapa, a picturesque town situ- 
ated high upon the broken sides of the huge mountain 
rampart which serves as a base for the great chain of 
the eastern branch of the Cordilleras. A lovelier sight, 
and more beautiful scenery, you need not seek in the 
torrid zone ! Below you, a steep descent leads rapidly 
down the verdant and fresh slopes, towards the shore of 
the gulf, which is just visible from the highest parts of 
the town, at the distance of twenty leagues and upward. 
Above you rises ridge above ridge, crowned by the 
CofFre de Perote ; and yet farther to the southward, by 
the magnificent snow-covered summit of Orizava,* in 



* Height of Orizava, 17,375 feet. 



216 



JALAPA, 



comparison to whose sublime and majestic stature, the 
elevated mountains which cluster round its feet appear 
but as pigmies. To the right and left, extending along 
the mountains' sides, at the height of between four and 
five thousand feet above the sea, lies a delicious and sa- 
lubrious region, covered with magnificent forests, and 
diversified with some of the most beautiful towns in 
New Spain ; a country, smiling with an eternal spring, 
under the kindly influence of the heavy mists and dews, 
which, rising thus midway up the steep cordillera from 
the bosom of the gulf, pause here in midair, and promote 
that rich verdure, which is equally grateful to the inha- 
bitants of the arid and steril table land, or of the fervid 
sands of the seaboard. 

To this "city of refuge" flies the unacclimated Euro- 
pean from the port below, as soon as that dreaded sick- 
ness, the vomito prieto, makes its annual appearance 
within the narrow walls, forgetting the thirst of gain, in 
sudden solicitude to preserve dear life. To this point, 
the moment he lands, the panting traveller presses up 
the steep mountains with might and main ; and blesses 
God when he feels the fresh air of the mountains, and 
sees the white w T alls of the convent of San Francisco 
crowning the steep: and here the inhabitant of the 
table land, or the departing stranger, pauses and lingers, 
ere he descend into the infected tierra caliente, and 
ventures to inhale the hot and subtile breath of fever and 
disease. 

Our view of Jalapa was but a glance, but it was one 
which has left on my mind a delightful impression of 
beauty ; and I often linger in fancy among its low, red- 
tiled, broad-eaved habitations, or exuberant gardens, and 
muse upon the marvellous beauty of its convent-crowned 
hill, and the freshness of its gushing waters, lakes, and 
shady w r oods. 

In architecture, the town affords a delightful example 
of the old Spanish style, and many of the country seats 
in the vicinity are delicious retreats. ; 

The population amounts to thirteen thousand. We 
here met with the majority of the gentlemen who were 



DESCENT TO THE COAST. 



217 



to be our fellow-voyagers in the packet ; and, as the 
exact hour of sailing was now known, and our departure 
from Jalapa in company fixed for the evening of the fol- 
lowing day, our short stay was fully occupied. In fact, 
far from being a day of repose, as was advisable, it was 
one of unremitting alacrity of body and mind. 

To dismiss our retainers, to sell our horses and fur- 
niture, to make ail the dispositions for final departure 
from the country, entailed upon us more fatigue than 
you can perhaps imagine. 

But about noon, somehow or other, all was arranged ! 
The arriero was on his way back to Perote, with the 
baggage of a party ascending to the capital. Garcia 
and Jose Maria, neither of whom had the slightest wish 
to risk their precious lives by advancing a step farther, 
were remunerated for their services; if not to their 
hearts' content, far beyond their deservings : and, masters 
of two of the horses of the train, were at liberty to seek 
other and equally gullible masters. Poor Pinto had to 
partake the fate of his comrades, and learn to obey 
another bridle and another spur, and those perhaps none 
of the mildest, being sold for less than the cost of his 
shoes. When I think that he may have found a hard 
master, I have sometimes regretted that I did not shoot 
him with my own hand ; for he had been a noble and 
fleet horse when young, and one of some renown ; and 
was still active and generous, notwithstanding his rough 
coat and wisp of a tail ; and I had insensibly become at- 
tached to him. We had travelled three months cheerily 
together, and gone through many strange scenes; and 
when I passed my hand over his neck for the last time, 
I own that I felt a very disagreeable tightness about the 
lower end of the gullet. I love poor dumb beasts. 

Since our first landing in America, Pourtales and my- 
self had made trial of almost every imaginable mode of 
travel and locomotion — carriage, coach, gig, sulky, carry- 
all, and carry nothing, mud waggon, dearborn, horse, 
mule, steamboat, steam carriage, goelette, shallop, skiff, 
wooden canoe, bark canoe, raft, rail, tree stump, the 
back of an Indian, and what not. We were now to 

T 



218 



DESCENT TO THE COAST. 



adventure our persons in yet another manner. The 
Mexican littera is a kind of oblong box, about a foot 
deep, three feet wide, and six feet long, unfortunately 
more frequently shorter than longer. Two long poles 
passing down and fastened to the sides, project fore and 
aft, and serve as shafts for two mules, to whose pack 
saddles the ends are attached by straps. In short, a long 
box instead of an upright one, a recumbent and supine 
position, instead of a sitting one, and two four-footed 
porters instead of two biped ones, are the main points of 
difference between the littera and the sedan chair. It is 
furnished with a leather awning and cotton curtains, and 
ordinarily with a well-worn mattress, through which you 
may feel the rough boards upon which you recline. 

We had heaid the litter described as the most luxu- 
rious mode of travelling; and accordingly, each slipped 
into his independent vehicle, with a feeling of great sat- 
isfaction. 

We formed a train of ten, with a horde of sumpter 
mules. Each litter, besides its two mules, was furnished 
with a mounted leader, a driver, and three spare animals, 
to serve as relays. The price of each, to the coast, was 
forty dollars. 

So down the deep paved street we clattered, amid the 
plaudits of the poblanitas from window and balcony : 
we were soon beyond the town, and travelled for- 
ward for hours through the forests, which gradually 
changed their character — the oak and his congeners 
disappearing, and the mimosa taking their place. 

Night soon closed in ; and when we halted, we found 
it was four o'clock in the morning, and that w 7 e had 
reached the celebrated bridge called by the builders, 
Puente del Rey ; still later, Puente Imperial ; and now 
Puente Nacional ; where we were to lie quiet for twelve 
hours, the heat being such as to forbid advance. We 
had passed, between waking and sleeping, the villages 
of Encero and Plan del Rio. 

I was now in some degree authorized to judge of the 
luxury of the litter. Pourtales was, it is true, in ecstasy 



DESCENT TO THE COAST. 



219 



at the bliss of being thus transported from place to place, 
with no effort on his part but what was necessary to lie 
steadily on his back, light another cigarita, or demolish 
another pineapple or watermelon, with which we had 
taken care to furnish ourselves; and, by-the-by, com- 
pared to the pineapples of Jalapa, all others are but tur- 
nips. M'Euen was extremely quiet — probably from 
there being something in the swinging movement of the 
machine which gave him a foretaste.of the coming sor- 
rows of salt water, from w 7 hich he always suffered 
grievously. For myself, I admit that novelty had 
charms for about ten minutes ; when I discovered that 
my litter wanted in length what it had in breadth. It 
was at once too broad and too short for me ; and I had, 
in consequence, to double myself up, both from neces- 
sity, and to steady myself as it swung from side to side. 
In addition, a found both dust and heat nearly insupport- 
able ; during the night especially, when it seemed prob- 
able, that 1 should be quite dissolved before dawn. 
Then there was the motion — soothing enough when the 
ground was even, and the mules well behaved, but ex- 
tremely disquieting when they were not of one mind, or 
when they stumbled down one of the sudden pitches 
which are common upon this mountain road. It some- 
times appeared inevitable, that I should be shot forth on 
my feet ; at others, that I and the litter should be 
dragged in twain ; and long before we came to a halt, 
I made up my mind, that, 4< were it not for the honour 
of the thing," I would much rather have walked. 

This being the state of affairs, it was a great relief to 
escape from my shell, and take a little rational exercise 
at Puente del Rey : it is my temper to prefer old names 
to new ones. The river Antigua, over which this noble 
causeway and bridge were constructed early in the pres- 
ent century, is formed of the combined waters of two 
dashing mountain rivers, which issue from their several 
glens at this point, and intermingle their streams just 
above the bridge. The whole scene is very striking, 
from the massive and noble character of the bridge and 
its approaches, contrasted with the savage character of the 



220 



DESCENT TO THE COAST. 



defile. The acclivities are very steep, rocky, and mostly 
covered with forest. The elevated promontory between 
the two forks, forms a commanding, but not a very ten- 
able position. It is fortified, if that term can apply to 
the existence of a rude fort, with a few pieces of cannon, 
without either soldiers or ammunition. It has, however, 
been frequently squabbled for during the last twenty 
years. 

A long, sleepy, broiling hot day was passed among 
the palmetto-thatched cottages of the hamlet near the 
bridge, which is far from being unpicturesque ; and at 
five in the evening, we crept into our litters again, and 
resumed our journey. Barren roads, covered with low 
bushes, conducted us to Santa Fe, which we reached at 
two in the morning. Here, for the second time, pursu- 
ant to the system of caution which terrible experience 
has inculcated, our line came to a second halt within 
three leagues of Vera Cruz. At Puente del Rey, we 
had lost many of the hangers-on of the train ; and here 
all who were not quite acclimated, or whom necessity 
did not compel to enter within the infected border, took 
their leave, as now farther advance would bring us 
within the influence of the danger. 

At five we set forward again. The level surface of 
the country became open, sandy, and steril ; and for- 
bidding beyond all description — without a hut or patch 
of cultivation — and the scenery glared upon us in a 
ghastly manner in the white light of the newly risen sun. 

In the course of two hours, escaping from the long 
ridges of sand with which the lower levels are covered, 
we arrived upon the hot beach of the gulf, a little to the 
north of the city. We straightway despatched a mes- 
senger to the merchant to whom we were recommended, 
and passing the gate, threaded a few deserted streets, and 
heedless of anything but escape, alighted at a fonda on 
the quay. Half of an hour sufficed to transact our busi- 
ness. Our baggage had not arrived from the capital, and 
we found we must sail without it. By nine or soon after, 
on the first of May, we were already on board the New- 
York packet, then lying in the roadstead— for port it can 



VERA CRUZ. 



hardly be called — abreast of the celebrated castle of 
San Juan de Ulua, and within full view of the sea wall, 
and the numerous towers, cupolas, and the batteries of 
the city. Low shores and banks lay on either hand, and 
the Island of Sacrificios just broke the watery horizon 
to the east. 

After reading the above, you will not expect me to 
say much in description of La Villa Rica della Vera 
Cruz. 

Regularly and even beautifully built, with fine open 
streets, a noble spacious square, and many churches — 
the principal channel through which the riches of New 
Spain are poured into the Old World — Vera Cruz is 
deserted in its appearance, and forbidding, from the ut- 
terly steril character of the shore on which it is based, 
and the flights of unclean birds which perch upon its 
roofs and churches, and hover round its walls. Mam- 
mon is the sole god of the city which is called after the 
symbol of our faith ; and here the bones of thousands 
of his worshippers whiten in the sands. The popula- 
tion has dwindled down from sixteen thousand to five 
thousand souls ; and every year, a large proportion of 
the new inhabitants, or the foreign arrivals, whether 
from the cool table land above or from beyond sea, are 
carried off by that terrible malady the " black vomit." 

The season when the vomito displays its greatest 
virulence is commonly from August to October. This 
year, it had never ceased to carry off newcomers, even 
during the cool months following the preceding rainy 
season, and already in January it had made consider- 
able ravages. At the time we thus came within its 
power, forty deaths a day were reported, and it was 
supposed many more actually occurred. 

The intense heats of the climate, augmented by the 
high walls of the city, and the rise of the sand hills — 
together with the stagnant waters in the neighbouring 
lagoons— are supposed to be the nurses of this terribly ' 
malignant and subtile form of bilious fever, to which 
experience has proved that the unacclimated is ex- 
posed, though he breathe the infected atmosphere but a 

t 2 



222 



VERA CRUZ. 



single hour. No care, no precaution, no previous course 
of medicine — no certain antidote can be prescribed. 
In daring it from necessity, you must rest satisfied with 
following the advice given, and taking those measures 
which, however vain in many cases, experience has 
sanctioned, and throw yourself upon the mercy of God 
for the rest. 

And this we had done to the best of our ability. We 
were told that the preceding three days' norte was, to 
a certain degree, in our favour, as during its continuance 
the pestilence abates something of its virulence. On 
shipboard we might be considered to be in no danger ; 
but we had passed two or three hours within reach of 
the infection ; and though there was a strong impulse 
in our bosoms to chant Te Deum, there was that uncer- 
tainty in our position which mingled the wailing ac- 
cents of Miserere mei, Dens ! with the song of praise. 

The castle of San Juan de Ulua belongs to that class 
of fortresses whose real strength is much more re- 
markable, than their outward appearance is striking or 
picturesque. It lies low on the water, in the midst of 
the harbourage, having for its base nothing more ele- 
vated than a mere sand bank, of which the shallow flats 
form its defence to the seaward. We had a permit 
for the inspection of the interior, but were in nowise 
tempted to take advantage of it. The morning passed 
away swiftly, in making the necessary arrangements 
for the voyage ; and the afternoon, in hourly expecta- 
tion of departure. One by one, our fellow-passengers 
came dropping in ; and all being on board by five in 
the evening, we were glad and thankful to weigh an- 
chor, and see the bow of the handsome vessel turned to 
the northeast. The sun set in haze and cloud, over the 
summits of the distant Cordillera. Orizava was com- 
pletely covered. The wind was favourable, and long 
before dawn, we had lost sight of the coast of New 
Spain. 

And now what would you have me say more. 



NEW SPAIN. 



223 



It would be deemed presumptuous in one who had 
spent but three months in a country, if he were to pre- 
tend to speak decidedly as to the condition of its in- 
habitants and character of its government. Little as 
we saw, nevertheless there are certain broad traits which 
strike the foreigner immediately, and I believe the cor- 
rectness of his first impressions is fully substantiated 
by the experience of all whose position lias yielded an 
occasion of looking at the state of society more closely. 
My hastily imbibed impressions of the inhabitants of 
New Spaiu were far from being favourable either to 
the people or to the system they have been pleased to 
adopt for their guide. If I may judge by what I saw 
and what I learned, I should infer that the barber, 
whose opinion I have elsewhere mentioned, was in the 
right, and that, of all countries 1 had ever seen, New 
Spain contains the largest proportion of canaille. How 
few, in that motley population, from the bedizened offi- 
cial of an hour to the lazar sleeping on the steps of the 
churches, merit any other name. 

In the United States, however strong your bias to 
the opinion, you pause in asserting that the theory of 
popular self-government can never be reduced to suc- 
cessful practice among the present races of mankind. 
However strong your secret conviction, that, though 
circumstances may have there favoured it thus far, it 
will, however wise and however reasonable in theory, 
ultimately prove itself inapplicable to man in his fallen 
state, even in that vaunted instance, there exists, for 
the time being, so much which would appear to tell in 
its favour, that you may as well shun the war of words. 
You feel that you had better hold your tongue and not 
argue, but let Time, the prover of all things, speak for 
you. But here in New Spain the case is otherwise; 
and the same may be said of all its southern neigh- 
bours in like positions : the experiment is one of which 
the madness is evident, and that it has not been, thus 
far, attended with like evils in the United States, is to 
be attributed to the difference of lineage, blood, and 
position j not that the theory is a wise one. 



224 



NEW SPAIN. 



No one who has ever spent a month in Mexico will 
pretend to say that the present state of the country is 
flattering to the advocates of republicanism. He de- 
tects want of system ; want of public and private faith ; 
want of legitimate means of carrying on the govern- 
ment, of enforcing the laws, or maintaining order ; total 
absence of patriotism ; a general ignorance ; indiffer- 
ence to the value of education, linked to overweening 
arrogance and pride ; an incredible absence of men of 
either natural or acquired talent of any description ; 
and intolerant support of the darkest bigotry and super- 
stition. The meanest partisanship stands in the place 
of patriotism. The government of the moment has 
not the power of effectually governing, even if it were 
sincere in the desire. No party is trusted ; no man in 
the country can command even the respect, much less 
the co-operation of all ; (I say respect, because a man 
of undoubted talent and probity and honest views, will 
be respected even by his political adversaries ;) and 
why ? — because self-seeking and self-aggrandizement is 
the purpose of all. They vapour about patriotism, and 
know not the signification of the word. 

The people of the United States, and the partisans of 
their system all the world over, find a ready answer or 
apology for the disreputable state of things among these 
their imitators ; and lay the present disorganization to 
the charge of the ancient tyranny. No — even granting 
that Spain in the government of her colonies was tyran- 
nical, there are other causes which incapacitate the 
Mexicans from treading in the footsteps of the states 
more to the north, and which will, it is probable, always 
prevent them attaining to their respectable position, how- 
ever it were to be wished. They have neither the prin- 
ciples of government, nor the reason, nor the conviction 
of the value of education, and more than all, the strong 
moral sense and general diffusion of religious principle, 
which distinguish their more northern neighbours. And 
what is to give it them ? 

I have now but little more to add of a character likely 
to interest you. 



THE PACKET SHIP. 



225 



The " Mexican," for so our packet was called, was a 
fine new vessel, clean and well ordered, a fast sailer, 
and altogether the most comfortable ship I ever was in. 
We had our staterooms on deck in a kind of open round- 
house. 

The voyage was, upon the whole, prosperous ; and for 
many days it seemed as if it would have been made in 
an unusually brief space of time — such was the rapid ad- 
vance made under the influence of a steady breeze, and 
the rapidity of the great gulf stream, whose current was 
in our favour. In one forty-eight hours, we logged an 
advance of full five hundred miles. However, three 
days' storm in the latitude of Cape Hatteras, delayed us 
considerably ; and it was on May 1 9th before we crossed 
the bar at Sandy Hook, and entered the port of New- 
York. 

There w T as one occurrence on board, however, which 
made a great impression upon the ship's company at the 
time, and with the mention of that I terminate my chron- 
icle. Among the Europeans who had come down from 
the capital with the other passengers for the packet, was 
Mr. P., a young French gentleman of family, an attache 
of the French legation. He had spent two years in the 
country, and was now returning to New-York and Paris 
with despatches, to the joy of his parents, to whom, as 
we learned afterward, this long separation had been a 
grievous trial. 

Gay and careless, on arrival at Jalapa, far from fol- 
lowing the advice or example of every other individual 
of the party similarly circumstanced, he persisted in con- 
tinuing his journey to Vera Cruz without delay, laughing 
at the idea of the danger — preferring to pass jovially a 
day or two with his acquaintances in that city, to the 
detention in a town on the mountains, where he felt no 
particular interest. He went — and on the evening of 
sailing, he joined us on board, dilating upon the social 
hours he had passed in consequence of his better man- 
agement. 

Poor fellow ! — little did he imagine, that that heedless 



226 



A DEATH AT SEA. 



contempt of danger would cost him his life ; that at that 
very moment, the seeds were sown of the fatal disease; 
and that, in the eyes of more than one experienced ob- 
server on board, he was already a doomed man. In 
common with many of the passengers, he suffered from 
seasickness during the first two or three days, but when 
they, one by one, recovered health and spirits, he con- 
tinued very ill, and evidently grew worse instead of bet- 
ter. The bad habit of body in which he evidently was, 
accounted for this in some degree ; but on the fourth 
day, a total prostration of strength, the horribly livid hue 
of his countenance, and other yet more certain symptoms 
of the vomilo, began to excite more than ordinary inter- 
est and attention. The idea of having the horrible dis- 
ease among us was repulsive, as you may imagine. Many 
denied the possibility, and for some time the matter was 
rather whispered than openly debated. The fifth day 
brought delirium and raving. No remedy suggested by 
the experience of those around him, no care, brought 
any alleviation. It was affecting to see at this time, when 
the nature of the dreadful malady which he had thus in- 
troduced, by fatal imprudence, into our floating prison 
became unquestionable, how all seemed to front the dan- 
ger with firmness. There was no skulking and no mur- 
muring; no shunning the sick man's couch when assist- 
ance was necessary. He had no intimate friend on 
board, and all seemed therefore to claim an equal right 
to do what could be done. De Pourtales in particular, 
who felt not only the tie of language with the sufferer, 
but the similarity of their ages and positions, was unre- 
mitting in his good offices. 

The night between the seventh and eighth was a 
dreadful one. We were off the Campeachy Bank ; and 
soon after dark a heavy squall with thunder and light- 
ning came on. 

The poor patient had been removed from below to 
one of the deck staterooms, both for a freer circulation 
of air, as well as to diminish the danger of infection, 
Pourtales, M'Euen, and myself, occupied the berths in 
his immediate proximity. 



A DEATH AT SEA. 



227 



I cannot describe to you the effect produced upon the 
mind, as, during the long watches of that night, the fe- 
vered and agonizing ravings of the dying man were 
heard mingling with the whistling of the wind in the 
cordage, the wash of the sea, and the roll of the thunder. 
The rocking of the vessel on the short seas, and the 
shocks which it received, evidently aggravated his suf- 
ferings — and from sundown to sunrise, neither spirit nor 
body found repose. He frequently called us by name ; 
but when we crept to the side of his berth, all was inco- 
herence. 

Poor young man ! he had been brought up in the 
heartless school of French immorality, and had lived 
without God or shame ; and now, with clouded reason 
and senses, was dying beyond the sense of sorrow and 
repentance for sin. The day which followed was a 
weary one ; we all trod the deck in silence. The patient 
got no rest. His spirit was literally " raving round its 
prison walls,'' and seeking exit. Towards evening, the 
last fatal symptom of his dreadful malady came on — the 
black vomit — and yet he lived. We could none of us 
rest, but watched when the end would come. Our cap- 
tain was a noble character, and his behaviour was, 
throughout, such as to reflect honour on himself and the 
service. Had he been the dying man's brother, he could 
not have evinced a more complete and more generous 
devotedness than he did from first to last. There he 
sat, hour after hour, supporting the languid head, and 
watching the gasp for breath, perfectly regardless of the 
risk of infection ; and when about half past one, on the 
morning of the eighth, the sufferer at length ceased to 
breathe, he was still at his post. 

When all was over, energetic measures were imme- 
diately adopted to avert danger to the passengers and 
crew. The body was strongly sewed up in canvass ; 
and by seven o'clock most signs of the past trial had been 
carefully removed. But there was still the shapeless 
corpse, which, covered with a flag, lay extended upon a 
plank, resting upon the starboard bulwarks of the vessel. 

There had been no indecent hurry — at the same time 



228 



A FUNERAL AT SEA. 



that there was no risk knowingly incurred. Out of re- 
spect to the dead and the living, and for the sake of those 
for whose breasts this heavy blow was preparing, it was 
unanimously decided that all that decency could suggest 
should be done. He might not be of our faith — he might 
not have lived and died to the Lord : our duty as men 
was clear ; and for the rest, we left judgment to Him 
that judgeth righteously. 

At sunrise the small crew clustered round the main- 
mast, and the passengers under the roundhouse. The 
ensign of the United States, with its stars and stripes, 
floated halfway up the rigging ; and the ship was kept 
under easy sail on the fresh but favourable breeze which 
had sprung up after the squall. The sky was without a 
cloud. In the absence of a clergyman of any church, 
the duty of reading the service over the body was im- 
posed upon me. I never heard that exquisitely beautiful 
portion of the ritual of the Church of England read without 
emotion, and none need wonder that I felt my voice trem- 
ble, as now, in the face of the broad blue sky, and amid 
the world of waters, I was called to utter its solemn 
strain over the lifeless remains of the companion who 
had thus been suddenly taken away while we were left. 
Others may have forgotten the incident long ago — I never 
can forget it. Yet the circumstances were such as so- 
bered the most unreflecting for the time. All saw before 
them a striking proof that 64 Man that is born of a woman 
hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery /" and 
that 44 In the midst of live ive are in death." 

Thus we committed the body of our fellow mortal to 
the deep, to be turned into corruption : looking for the 
resurrection of the body, when the sea shall give up her 
dead. 



THE END. 



